Stupid Things with References

It took me a while to figure out why I was writing junk to the DB. More or less, this is my code.

my $request = get_request( $request_id ) ;
my $to_wiki = $request ;

I thought to be making a copy of the hash in the hashref.

I meant to be making a copy of the hash in the hashref.

I wasn't making a copy of the hash in the hashref. I was making a copy of the hashref address. Which means every change I made to $to_wiki, I made to $request.

Instead, I needed to do something more like this.

my $request = get_request( $request_id ) ;
my $to_wiki ;
%$to_wiki = map { $_ => $request->{ $_ } } keys %$request ;

I present this as a cautionary tale. Please, learn from the mistakes of others.