Chapter 7. Subroutine References

So far, you've seen references to three main Perl data types: scalars, arrays, and hashes. We can also take a reference to a subroutine (sometimes called a coderef).

Why would we want to do that? Well, in the same way that taking a reference to an array lets you have the same code work on different arrays at different times, taking a reference to a subroutine allows the same code to call different subroutines at different times. Also, references permit complex data structures. A reference to a subroutine allows a subroutine to effectively become part of that complex data structure.