building array of hashes

fionbarr has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

 my @label_array = qw (Title Section Subsection Class Category Degree 
+Attempt CountOfCharges);

    for ( 0 .. ( $offense_line_count - 1 ) ) {
        my $value = $offense_value_array[$_];

        # next if ( !defined $value );
        my $label = $offense_label_array[$_];

    $hash{$label} = $value;

    # print "$label -> $value\n";

    # build an array of hashes...if the 'CountOfCharges' is greater th
+an 1
    # push another copy of the hash on the array
    if ( $label eq 'CountOfCharges') {
        $num_chgs   = int($value);
        if ($num_chgs > 1 ) {
            print "ref = $referencenumber....($num_chgs) \n" 
        }
        for (0 .. ($num_chgs - 1)) {
           print "\n\n$_    pushing $hash{Section} / $hash{Subsection}
+\n";
               push @AOH, \%hash;
        }
     }        
     }
[download]

I am pushing unique hashes onto an array but each array element is IDENTICAL when I examine it. What stupid mistake am I making? I look at the array like 'x $AOH[0]->{Section}' and each element of the array is identical

Comment on building array of hashes Download Code

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Re: building array of hashes by SuicideJunkie (Vicar) on Jun 28, 2013 at 19:33 UTC
FYI, you can edit your original post to clarify with an Edit: blah blah Whenever you have multiple elements that are mysteriously identical, you've almost certainly got two references to the same thing in your set. `$AoH[0] >---\ \ -----> $hashref / $AoH[1] >---/` [download] %hash is declared somewhere outside of the code you posted. Inside your loop, you push a reference to that hash onto your array. You then push more references to the SAME hash until the loop ends. If you want different, independent hashes in each array element, then `push @AoH, {Section=>$sec, Subsection=>$subsec, foo=>$bar};` to get references to a new anonymous hash each time. Alternatively, you can do a deep copy on a template hash before tweaking it and putting a ref to the new copy into your array	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: building array of hashes by Eily (Monsignor) on Jun 28, 2013 at 19:35 UTC
Since you do not declare your hash inside of your for loop, it is always the same one you push into the array. You do not have a new one with new values, you just replace them. There are two things you can do. Either declare your hash lexically (with my) inside the for loop, and you'll have a brand new one each time, or youcan make a new one to push into AOH. With `push @AOH, { %hash }; # copy of %hash here` Both are possible, but it would probably be better to have your `my %hash` in the for loop, because you can be sure to have only new values, not ones that you somehow didn't delete or change.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: building array of hashes by fionbarr (Friar) on Jun 28, 2013 at 18:55 UTC
that is $AOH1->{Section} is identical to $AOH[0]->{Section} etc.	[reply]