Hello Raya4505, you wrote:

your line "if (exists my $DiagCodes{$_})"

But my line is:

if (exists $DiagCodes{$_})
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— without the my! When you use my, you declare a new lexical variable. (And if the variable is not explicitly initialised in the declaration, it receives Perl’s default initialisation: undef if it’s a scalar, the empty list if it’s an array or hash.) So, remove the my and it should work correctly.

Here’s a useful reference: Coping with Scoping by Dominus.

Hope that helps,

First of all, you are amazing. Thank you for your help. One thing I didn't put in my example and should have, is some of the diagnosis codes in my arrays start with a letter (e.g., V21564, c5415). So, I am struggling with your lines that say:

  for (sort { $a <=> $b } keys %{ $Diags{$key} } )
    {
        if (exists $DiagCodes{$_}) 
        {
            printf $fh1 "    %s: %d, %d\n",
                        $DiagNames{ $DiagCodes{$_} },
                        $_,
                        $Diags{$key}->{$_};
        }
        else
        {
            printf $fh1 "    Unrecognized code: %d\n", $_;
        }
    }
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because they are set up for a numeric value with the <=>, so I changed it to:

foreach (sort {$a cmp $b} keys %{$Diags}$key}})
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I tried some other things, but that is the one with the least errors, although it is still not running through. I PROMISE this will be the last question I ask for a long time!! Any insight you can give would be amazing!

Hello Raya4505,

Changing the script to handle diagnosis codes as strings rather than integers is not difficult. First, I’ve changed the contents of the input file “2009.txt” as follows:

Tom_Jones z9062
John_Smith V27783
Tom_Jones z9062
Jane_Brown 9100
Tom_Jones 28741
John_Smith z9062
Tom_Jones z9062
Jane_Brown z9062
Tom_Jones 28741
Jane_Brown c2853
Jane_Brown z9062
Tom_Jones 12345
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Next, the script itself. You’ve already handled the most challenging part by changing the sort operator from <=> to cmp. The only other changes required are to the array initialisations and the printf formats:

1. For the array initialisations, you need to quote the strings (because barewords are not allowed under strict 'subs'):

   my @ComplicationsSurgicalProcedMedCare_238 = ( 27661, 'V27783', 27788,
   + 'c2853', 28741);
   my @SuperficialInjuryContusion_239         = ('z9062',    9063,  9100,
   +   9101);
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   Or, you can make use of Perl’s qw operator (on which, see: Quote Like Operators):

   my @ComplicationsSurgicalProcedMedCare_238 = qw(27661 V27783 27788 c28
   +53 28741);
   my @SuperficialInjuryContusion_239         = qw(z9062   9063  9100  91
   +01);
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2. The printf function format codes are as in C, and are detailed in the documentation for sprintf. %d formats its input as an integer, %s formats its input as a string. So this section of code:

   if (exists $DiagCodes{$_})
   {
       printf $fh1 "    %s: %d, %d\n",
   #        *** Change here: ^
                   $DiagNames{ $DiagCodes{$_} },
                   $_,
                   $Diags{$key}->{$_};
   }
   else
   {
       printf $fh1 "    Unrecognized code: %d\n", $_;
   #                       *** Change here: ^
   }
   [download]

   needs to be changed to:

   if (exists $DiagCodes{$_})
   {
       printf $fh1 "    %s: %s, %d\n",
                   $DiagNames{ $DiagCodes{$_} },
                   $_,
                   $Diags{$key}->{$_};
   }
   else
   {
       printf $fh1 "    Unrecognized code: %s\n", $_;
   }
   [download]

Hope that helps,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum

Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,