%_raw(date) vs $_raw(date) formats

in the Baseportal "documents" it states :

   The comparison can also be made using a while... loop in perl. Since loop converts the $Date in the right format automatically, the hash %_raw must be used in order to enable a comparison.



<loop code=perl>

if($_raw(date) lt date ("now", "internal"))
{
            ...
            }


</loop>


i do not see the %_raw(date) used in this code.