$fc = 'abcdfoofrobnicatebardefforspambazghi'; 

$re2 = qr/(fo.)(.*?)(ba.)/;

push @excerpts, $1 while $fc =~ /($re2)/g;

print "0: $excerpts[0];
print "0: $excerpts[0];

for my $i ( 0 .. 1 ) {
    $excerpts[i] =~ /$re2/;
    $%{$excerpts[$i]}{fpart} = $1;
    $%{$excerpts[$i]}{bpart} = $3;
}

print "0{fpart}: $%{$excerpts[0]}{fpart}\n;
print "0{bpart}: $%{$excerpts[0]}{bpart}\n;
print "1{fpart}: $%{$excerpts[1]}{fpart}\n;
print "1{bpart}: $%{$excerpts[1]}{bpart}\n;

__END__

0:foofrobnicatebar
1:forspambaz
0{fpart}: foo
0{bpart}: bar
1{fpart}: for
1{bpart}: baz
[download]

Hope I typed all this correctly

Edit: changed $2 to $3 in for loop. Running it on PC with perl yields above results with exception of 1{bpart} for some reason

Addendum: I also realize that I could have started out with an array of hashes and put the original contents into $excerpts[$i]{contents} and then from it gotten $excerpts[$i]{bpart} $excerpts[$i]{fpart} with the normal AoH syntax, but this question is for an already existing array with stuff in $excerpts[$i].

Hi ExReg,

I'd recommend you take a look at perldsc for a cookbook of different data structures. You should also always Use strict and warnings, especially when working with complex data structures - and your code contains a typo that prevents it from working properly and that use strict; would have caught! Also, please post code that compiles, you're missing several closing quotes.

The syntax "$%{$excerpts[$i]}{fpart}" is probably not doing what you want - it's populating a hash "%%"!

Here's one way to do what you want. Note that $excerpts[i]{fpart} = ... would not work, since at that point $excerpts[i] is a string, not a hash ref, that's why I replace that element of @excerpts with a new hashref.

use warnings;
use strict;

use Data::Dumper;

my $fc = 'abcdfoofrobnicatebardefforspambazghi'; 
my $re2 = qr/(fo.)(.*?)(ba.)/;
my @excerpts;
push @excerpts, $1 while $fc =~ /($re2)/g;
for my $i ( 0 .. $#excerpts ) {
    $excerpts[$i] =~ /$re2/;
    $excerpts[$i] = { fpart=>$1, bpart=>$3 };
}

print Dumper(\@excerpts);

__END__

$VAR1 = [
          {
            'bpart' => 'bar',
            'fpart' => 'foo'
          },
          {
            'fpart' => 'for',
            'bpart' => 'baz'
          }
        ];
[download]

Hope this helps,
-- Hauke D

I apologize. I do use strict and warnings. That and any typos I have are because I do not have perl on this system and have to look at the other system where I test it to type it here.

I would agree that the syntax I have is not what I want. As I mentioned in my reply to stevieb, a normal AoH syntax would have been better.

If I understand what you have, you get the strings into $excerpts[$i], then replace those strings with hashes in the

$excerpts[$i] = { fpart=>$1, bpart=>$3 };
[download]

step. This unfortunately gets rid of the original string in each array element. I could get around this by doing

$excerpts[$i] = { fpart=>$1, bpart=>$3, content=>$value };
[download]

if I first get the content into $value before overwriting it.

Thanks

The syntax "$%{$excerpts[$i]}{fpart}" is probably not doing what you want - it's populating a hash "%%"!

Thank you for the bit about it actually being the hash %%. I thought I knew references well enough and now I guess I didn't. I have been re-reading the books and docs on references for the last few days and hope to never again utter such execrable desecrations.