sub filter {
   die 'Error: no fields to filter through' if (@_ < 2);
   my $response = shift;
   my @fields;
   foreach my $a (0..$#_) {
      $fields[$a]= shift; }
   
   if (ref $response eq 'ARRAY') {
      my @response = @$response;
      my @filtered_responsearr;
      my %filtered_response;
      
      foreach my $ref (@response) {
         my %response = %$ref; 
           foreach my $field (@fields) {
              $filtered_response{$field}=$response{$field};
              }
              
              push @filtered_responsearr, %filtered_response;
              
     }
     return \@filtered_responsearr;
    }