David92:

Reading the thread, I think that trying to unwrap the hash into a set of named variables is a mistake. I think that what you really need is something more like:

my @interesting_customers = get_interesting_customer_list();
my @time_periods = (qw( money3am money6am ... ));

# Build a total for customer list
foreach $customer (@interesting_customers) {
    # only looking at the interesting ones
    $myHash{$customer}{money_spent}=0;
    foreach $time_period (@time_periods) {
        $myHash{$customer}{money_spent} += $myHash{$customer}{$time_pe
+riod}{money};
    }
}

# How much did 'JoeBiden' spend with us?
print "JoeBiden spent $myHash{JoeBiden}{money_spent} dollars with us\n
+";
[download]

Once you summarize your data into the hash, you can just use the values as if they were named variables, but you don't need to write explicit code for each customer number.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.