Converting array of numbers to json in perl, getting array of strings

Question

I\'m trying to convert an array of numbers to json:

   $json = to_json(\"numbers_array\" => \\@numbers_array);
   print $json;

but the output I\'m get

Answer 1

Here's my program:

#! /usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use feature qw(say);

use JSON;

my @array;
for my $number ( (1..5) ) {
    push @array, $number;
}
say to_json( {"number_array" => \@array} );

And here's my result:

{"number_array":[1,2,3,4,5]}

That's what you want. Right?

Let's change my push from push @array , $number; to push @array "$number"; where $number is in quotes as if it's a string:

#! /usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use feature qw(say);

use JSON;

my @array;
for my $number ( (1..5) ) {
    push @array, "$number";
}
say to_json( {"number_array" => \@array} );

Now I get:

{"number_array":["1","2","3","4","5"]}

Somehow JSON was able to detect that these numbers were pushed in as strings. Let me loop again and add a zero to each element:

#! /usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use feature qw(say);

use JSON;

my @array;
for my $number ( (1..5) ) {
    push @array, "$number";
}

@array  = map { $_ += 0 } @array; #Add a 0 to each element

say to_json( {"number_array" => \@array} );

Back to:

{"number_array":[1,2,3,4,5]}

Looks like you have to add a zero to each element of your array to convert the string back to a numeric value.