Pushing multi-dimensional arrays onto each other

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

I am returning a multi-dimensional array from MySQL and want to increment it with more results.

( not exact, this is pseudo-output for clarity )
e.g.

@results1 = 
'employee1','address1','payrate1','hiredate1',
'employee2','address2','payrate2','hiredate2'

@results2 = 
'employee3','address3','payrate3','hiredate3',
'employee4','address4','payrate4','hiredate4'
[download]

if I push @results1, @results2, do i get:

'employee1','address1','payrate1','hiredate1',
'employee2','address2','payrate2','hiredate2',
'employee3','address3','payrate3','hiredate3',
'employee4','address4','payrate4','hiredate4'
[download]

tried using Dumper to figure this out, to no avail
thanks

2002-05-13 Edit by Corion : Fixed CODE tags

Comment on Pushing multi-dimensional arrays onto each other Select or Download Code

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(MeowChow) Re: Pushing multi-dimensional arrays onto each other
by MeowChow (Vicar) on May 14, 2002 at 21:00 UTC

use Data::Dumper;

@results1 = 
('employee1','address1','payrate1','hiredate1',
'employee2','address2','payrate2','hiredate2');

@results2 = 
('employee3','address3','payrate3','hiredate3',
'employee4','address4','payrate4','hiredate4');

push @results1, @results2;
print Dumper \@results1;

### OUTPUT ###

$VAR1 = [
          'employee1',
          'address1',
          'payrate1',
          'hiredate1',
          'employee2',
          'address2',
          'payrate2',
          'hiredate2',
          'employee3',
          'address3',
          'payrate3',
          'hiredate3',
          'employee4',
          'address4',
          'payrate4',
          'hiredate4'
        ];
[download]

   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print

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Re: Pushing multi-dimensional arrays onto each other
by grep (Monsignor) on May 14, 2002 at 22:19 UTC

if I push @results1, @results2, do i get:


'employee1','address1','payrate1','hiredate1',
'employee2','address2','payrate2','hiredate2',
'employee3','address3','payrate3','hiredate3',
'employee4','address4','payrate4','hiredate4'

Well if you want a true multi-dimensional array, this isn't it. You just flattened it as MeowChow shows in Data::Dumper.

To have a multi-dimensional array you want

  |      0          1          2           3
---------------------------------------------------
0 | ['employee1','address1','payrate1','hiredate1'],
1 | ['employee2','address2','payrate2','hiredate2'],
2 | ['employee3','address3','payrate3','hiredate3'],
3 | ['employee4','address4','payrate4','hiredate4']
[download]

This is Array of Arrays - or more clearly an Array of scalars that contain Array Refs. The '[]' show an array reference.</>

To achive this you want

push(@AoA,\@result1,\@result2)

So let's say you want 'address2', you can access it by:

my $foo = @AoA[1]->[1]

HTH

grep

Unix - where you can throw the manual on the keyboard and get a command

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Re: Pushing multi-dimensional arrays onto each other
by csotzing (Sexton) on May 14, 2002 at 21:33 UTC

push(@a,@b)

push(@a,[@b])

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