Another thing I notice right off the bat is these two lines:

        $agents[++$j]= new VRTSAgent;
        $agents[$j]->new();
[download]

You have quite a number of problems with your code, i'll attemp to rewrite some of your code, but not all. Try this out:

use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my @agents;

open (FH,'matrix.csv');
while(<FH>) {
   chomp;
   push @agents, VRTSAgent->new(split(/\s*,\s*/,$_,6));
}
close FH;

print Dumper $_ for @agents;

package VRTSAgent;
use strict;
use Carp;
use Data::Dumper;

sub new {
   my $class = shift;
   my $self  = _init(@_);
   return bless $self, $class;
}

sub _init {
   my %init = (
      agent   => undef,
      os      => [shift,shift],
      version => [@_],

   );
   return \%init;
}

# here is how i would code _dump_os
# note: if the client is going to call a method 
# then don't prefix that method with an underscore!
# only private methods should be prefixed with underscores
sub dump_os {
   my $self = shift;
   print Dumper($self->{os});
}

# you could call it like so: $_->dump_os for @agents;
[download]

I totally got lazy with the _init() method - this is not good code (see Shift versus Sanity for discussions on why) , but i hope this gives you a new perspective on a hard part of this problem - turning each data piece into an attribute. Good luck, and let us know if you have any other problems in your endeavor.

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

can you tell me more about what

os      => [shift,shift],
[download]

is doing. its not the shift that I am confused about but rather what the data structure is now. In the original code that was a hash, but I am not sure what that syntax would make it. thanks Josh

I thought about why you chose a hash and didn't see the benefit. I guess i need to see your requirements first before making that judgement, but again, my point was to show you how to get the most out of Perl - how to break away from C-style coding.

The resulting data structure is an array reference. This may not be what you want, however. Check this out (assuming your data file):

$_->dump_os for @agents;

# yields:
$VAR1 = [
          'SUN',
          'Solaris 8'
        ];
$VAR1 = [
          'IBM',
          'AIX  4.3.3'
        ];
# etc.
[download]

Again, since i really do not know what your target is, i had to improvise. Now is the time when i wish i could be at your computer ... but alas ... if you want to continue this disussion, let's work via /msg and scratchpad's - no need to waste database space. ;)

UPDATE:
After some discussion via /msg's, i feel that storing the os's in a hash is not necessary at all. If you store them in an array reference as i have done, you can test for a particular OS by using grep. Here is an example:

foreach (@agents) {
   $_->dump_os if grep /AIX/, @{$_->{os}};
}
[download]

Of course, you could also grep a hash, but that seems a bit like using a square on a round hole to me. ;) Good luck!

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)