ref - find out the type of thing being referenced

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION

# NAME

ref - find out the type of thing being referenced

# SYNOPSIS

ref EXPR

ref

# DESCRIPTION

Returns a non-empty string if EXPR is a reference, the empty string otherwise. If EXPR is not specified, `$_` will be used. The value returned depends on the type of thing the reference is a reference to. Builtin types include:

        SCALAR
        ARRAY
        HASH
        CODE
        REF
        GLOB
        LVALUE

If the referenced object has been blessed into a package, then that package name is returned instead. You can think of `ref` as a `typeof` operator.

        if (ref($r) eq "HASH") {
            print "r is a reference to a hash.\n";
        }
        unless (ref($r)) {
            print "r is not a reference at all.\n";
        }

See also the perlref manpage.

ref - find out the type of thing being referenced