sub add_containee(\%\%) {
        my ($container, $containee)=@_;
#$container/containeeIndex are references to code providing this infor
+mation
        #find the container
        my ($object, $i);
        my $found=0;
        for ($i=0; $i< @containerRefArray; $i++) {
          if ($containerRefArray[$i] eq $container) {
          $found=1;
            last;
          }
        }
        if (! $found) {push @containerRefArray, $container;
          push @containeeArray, []}
 
        if (defined $containee) {
          push @{$containeeArray[$i]}, $containee;}
}
[download]

Okay, I can see now how you're getting stuff into @containeeArray. I'm still not sure where you're using this. Is it a parameter to get_parentRelPos? I would assume not, since it looks like it should take a hash reference ans a scalar, not an array. Aside from populating the array, tell us how it's used.
Also, it looks to me like your debugging output references a line that says if ($found) {, which I don't see aywhere in the code you posted. (If I'm wrong here, somebody let me know!). Maybe if you posted the code that contains that line?

Guildenstern
Negaterd character class uber alles!

@containeeArray is a hash of hashes containing references to the same kind of hashes as in @containerRefArray. After I get the index of the container containing %$object, in following code I look up the corresponding entry in @containeeArray. I then sort the hash in $containeeArray$i and then return the position in this sortted hash of %$object.

That was the plan anyway.

Here's the rest of the fns

<CODE> sub sort_objects { $a->{'~entPhysicalIndex'} <=> $b->{'~entPhysicalIndex'}; } sub get_parentRelPos (\%$) { my ($object, $name)=@_; my ($i, $j, $found); my (@tmp, $dummy); my $parentObject=$object->{'~PARENT'}; my $objectIndex=$object->{'~entPhysicalIndex'}; if (ref $parentObject ne 'HASH') { confess "parent object wasn't a hash"; return -1; } for ($i=0; $i < @containerRefArray; $i++) { if ($containerRefArray$i eq $parentObject) { $found=1; last; } } if ($found) { # Call the code in each contained object to obtain the entPhysicalIndex of each one and then sort them (references in containeeArray point to tied hashes) # 1: # sorting with sort sort_objects @{$containeeArray$i} didn't work for some reason ?? # 2: # @tmp=@{$containeeArray$i}; # 3: # foreach $dummy (@{containeeArray$i}) { # push @tmp, $dummy; # } # none of the above 3 methods seem to work right @tmp = sort sort_objects @tmp; for ($j=0; $j < @tmp; $j++) { if ($tmp$j eq $object) { return $j+1; } } } return -1; } <\CODE>