Yes, I'm aware of that. What I need to do is store the entries into the cart indexed by item_id, which distinguishes a product from one color to another.

When I try to bring in item_id with this statement of code:

$clref = $dbh->prepare ("SELECT color FROM item WHERE prod_id = ".$ref
+->{product_id});
               $clref->execute();
    
               while (my $color = $clref->fetchrow_hashref()) {
               push @{$ref->{color}}, $color->{color};
                  }
[download]

And, then carry everything over to my Add Item subroutine, I receive Shopping Cart is Empty message.

Now, here is what I did to the code to try to bring in the item_id and which later produces an empty shopping cart message.

$clref = $dbh->prepare ("SELECT item_id, color FROM item WHERE prod_id
+ = ".$ref->{product_id});
               $clref->execute();
    
               while (my $color, $item_id = $clref->fetchrow_hashref()
+) {
               push @{$ref->{color}, {$ref->{item_id}}, $color->{color
+}, $item_id->{item_id};
                  }
[download]

I'm trying to create a $ref->{item_id} so it is the same as all the other variables. Then, I'm trying to pass the $ref->{item_id} to the add_item subroutine.

It is quite apparent that I'm goofing up somewhere. I just don't know where.
Here's also what I've done to the add_item subroutine...

sub add_item
{
my ($dbh, $cart_ref, $item_id, $qty, $color) = @_;

    # If the item isn't already in the cart, look it up from the datab
+ase
    # and store it in the cart as a new entry with a quantity of zero.
    if (!exists ($cart_ref->{$item_id}))
    {
        my $sth = $dbh->prepare ("SELECT * FROM item, catalog_pet WHER
+E catalog_pet.product_id = item.prod_id AND catalog_pet.product_id = 
+?");
        $sth->execute ($item_id);
        my $item_ref = $sth->fetchrow_hashref ();
        $sth->finish ();
        return if !defined ($item_ref);    # this shouldn't happen...
        $cart_ref->{$item_id} = {};    # create new entry, indexed by 
+item ID
        $cart_ref->{$item_id}->{description} = $item_ref->{description
+};
        $cart_ref->{$item_id}->{price} = $item_ref->{price};
        $cart_ref->{$item_id}->{qty} = 1;
    }
    $cart_ref->{$item_id}->{qty} = $qty;    
                $cart_ref->{$item_id}->{color} = $color;    
}
[download]

You can see that I'm trying to store the cart entries by item_id. This attempt of coding produces an empty shopping cart message.