Why does perl only dereference the last index when the range operator is used? -

i have array, @array, of array references. if use range operator print elements 1 through 3 of @array, print @array[1..3], perl prints array references elements 1 through 3.

why when try dereference array references indexed between 1 , 3, @{@array[1..3]}, perl dereferences , prints out last element indexed in range operator?

is there way use range operator while dereferencing array?

example code

#!/bin/perl  use strict; use warnings;  @array = (); foreach $i (0..10) {     push @array, [rand(1000), int(rand(3))]; }  foreach $i (@array) {     print "@$i\n"; }  print "\n\n================\n\n";  print @{@array[1..3]};  print "\n\n================\n\n"; 

@{@array[1..3]} strange-looking construct. @{ ... } array dereference operator. needs reference, type of scalar. @array[ ... ] produces list.

this 1 of situations need remember rule list evaluation in scalar context. rule there no general rule. each list-producing operator own thing. in case, apparently array slice operator used in scalar context returns last element of list. @array[1..3] in scalar context same $array[3].

as have noticed, not useful. array slices aren't meant used in scalar context

if want flatten 2-dimensional nested array structure 1-dimensional list, use map:

print join ' ', map { @$_ } @array[1..3] 

you still use range operator slicing. need kind of looping construct (e.g. map) apply array dereference operator separately each element of outer array.