this would surprise me

  DB<71> use warnings; $a=(1..2)[9]

  DB<72>
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> so you might want to use eval: my $date = eval { $d->content->[1] }

Thats why the use is of ->content is discouraged and ->content_array_ref is offered

$content_array_ref = $h->content_array_ref(); # never undef
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"This is like content (with all its caveats and deprecations) except that it is guaranteed to return an array reference."

> (All code obviously untested.)

dito! :)

I said "might" because I was not sure off the top of my head whether reading off the end of a list produces a warning in Perl or not.

As the documentation says, content_array_ref is just as deprecated as content, with content_list being the preferred interface for new code.

> As the documentation says, content_array_ref is just as deprecated as content

Not really, I can't see this in the documentation.

And the author seems to be a bit confused about the inner mechanics of Perl.

update

After further reading. .. the issue seems to be that the ref returned is the one of an internal attribute _content , which "still" allows direct write access to children elements, but that's strongly discouraged.

But as long as you are only reading and not writing, I can't see a reason to deprecated the whole method.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}