perl function dump

The Data::Dump module in Perl provides the dump function, which is used to display the contents of a variable or data structure in a human-readable format. Here's an example of how to use dump:

use Data::Dump qw(dump);

my @arr = (1, 2, 3, [4, 5, 6], {foo => 'bar'});

print dump(\@arr);

In this example, an array @arr is declared with a mix of scalar values, array references, and hash references. The dump function is then called with a reference to @arr as its argument. The dump function returns a string representation of the contents of @arr, which is printed to the console using print.

The output of the script is:

[
  1,
  2,
  3,
  [4, 5, 6],
  { foo => "bar" },
]

As you can see, the dump function displays the contents of the array in a hierarchical format that makes it easy to see the structure of the data. Scalars are displayed as plain values, array references are displayed as nested arrays, and hash references are displayed as nested hashes.

The dump function is particularly useful for debugging complex data structures, as it can help you quickly identify the structure and contents of a variable. The Data::Dump module also provides other functions for displaying data, such as pp and dd, which have slightly different formatting options.