updated: hash value $value

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

I realize this title is weird :(, but I do not know how to express it better. Let me try. I am writing some if/elsif/else loops with the very similar content, so that got me thinking that there has to be a better way.

One of the examples I have assigns values to different HoH, and they have quite similar names: %hoh_groups_prod, %hoh_grous_test, %hoh_contacts_prod, %hoh_contacts_test. You get the idea. Theses HoH have data I want to access, I do not want to create them

So I thought: what if I create a hash, let's call it %choice, and create a table like:

my %choice = (
    'group_prod'    => '$hoh_groups_prod',
    'group_test'    => '$hoh_groups_test',
    'contacts_prod' => '$hoh_contacts_prod',
    'contacts_test' => '$hoh_contacts_test',
);
[download]

If I create a subroutine, then i could call

my ( $object ) = @_;
my $test = $choice{ $object };
[download]

But what this does is obviously create a new variable $test and not access the values of $hoh_$object{'whatever'}

Does it make sense?

Comment on updated: hash value $value Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: hash value $value by choroba (Cardinal) on Feb 17, 2016 at 15:11 UTC
You can pass the hash reference as the argument of the subroutine (I'll call it `frobnicate` ): `frobnicate(\%hoh_groups_prod);` [download] And, in the subroutine: `sub frobnicate { my $hash = shift; $hash->{key} = ... ; # etc. }` [download] Update: `\@` → `\%` (thanks LanX). ($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-\|\|-\|5+lengthSq)`"S\|oS2"`map{chr \|+ord }map{substrSq`S_+\|`\|}3E\|-\|`7**2-3:)=~y+S\|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a, [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: hash value $value by natxo (Scribe) on Feb 17, 2016 at 15:21 UTC
cool, thanks! Nice naming convention ;-)	[reply]
Re: updated: hash value $value by NetWallah (Canon) on Feb 17, 2016 at 17:13 UTC
some if/elsif/else loops with the very similar content, ... values to different HoH, and they have quite similar names... This smells like you are trying to re-invent Dispatch Tables. Check out the link, to see if that is a more appealing representation/implementation. "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin	[reply]
Re^2: updated: hash value $value by natxo (Scribe) on Feb 18, 2016 at 12:11 UTC
yes, strong case of NIH syndrom :-) I will take a look at that , thanks!	[reply]
Re: hash value $value by Anonymous Monk on Feb 17, 2016 at 15:08 UTC
Go a few levels deeper. `$hoh{test}{groups} = { ... }; $hoh{test}{contacts} = { ... }; $hoh{prod}{groups} = { ... }; $hoh{prod}{contacts} = { ... };` [download]	[reply] [d/l]