sub serialize_string_list {
   return join('|',
      map {
         (defined($_)
            ? do { local $_=$_; s/\^/^1/g; s/\|/^2/g; $_ }
            : '^0'
         )
      } @_
   );
}


sub populate{
        @n=();
	my $dt;
	my $row;
#course contains the values fetched from the database
	foreach $row (@$course) {
	($dt) = @$row;
	push(@n,$dt);

}

    return serialize_string_list  @n;

};

//deserializes the array
function deserialize_string_list(s) {
   var fields = s.split("|")

   var i;
   for (i=0; i<fields.length; i++) {
      if (fields[i] == "^0") {
         fields[i] = null;
      } else {
         var re;

         re = /\^2/g;
         fields[i] = fields[i].replace(re, "|");
   
         re = /\^1/g;
         fields[i] = fields[i].replace(re, "^");
      }
   }

   return fields;
}


//calling Sajax wrapper function from a javascript function

function do_populate() {
    x_populate(do_populate_cb);
}

function do_populate_cb(s) {
 var arr = deserialize_string_list(s);

	var i;
    for (i=0; i<arr.length; i++) {
 	   with(document.doc1.selCourseNm)
		{
		options[i]=new Option(arr[i],arr[i]);
		}
    }

}