I am trying to figure out how to split a string (line of a text file) into a hash of hashes. The textfile looks very much like the Windows Registry. There are some lines that contain a registry like path, with backslashes delimiting key paths.

Here is an example from the file:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Vendor\Product\CurrentVersion\Tokens\Encotone\SerialNumberUserAttribute=12345
LanMan:= ; REG_SZ
LDAP:= ; REG_SZ
ODBC:= ; REG_SZ

I am trying to figure out how to take the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE line and build a hash of hashes. If I were building the hash manualy, I would normally do it like this:

$hash{'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'}{'SOFTWARE'}{'Vendor'}{'Product'}{'CurrentV
+ersion'}{'Tokens'}{'Encotone'}{'SerialNumberUserAttribute'}=12345;
$hash{'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'}{'SOFTWARE'}{'Vendor'}{'Product'}{'CurrentV
+ersion'}{'Tokens'}{'Encotone'}{'SerialNumberUserAttribute'}{'LanMan'}
+{'Value'}="";
$hash{'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'}{'SOFTWARE'}{'Vendor'}{'Product'}{'CurrentV
+ersion'}{'Tokens'}{'Encotone'}{'SerialNumberUserAttribute'}{'LanMan'}
+{'Type'}="REG_SZ";
$hash{'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'}{'SOFTWARE'}{'Vendor'}{'Product'}{'CurrentV
+ersion'}{'Tokens'}{'Encotone'}{'SerialNumberUserAttribute'}{'LDAP'}{'
+Value'}="";
$hash{'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'}{'SOFTWARE'}{'Vendor'}{'Product'}{'CurrentV
+ersion'}{'Tokens'}{'Encotone'}{'SerialNumberUserAttribute'}{'LDAP'}{'
+Type'}="REG_SZ";
$hash{'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'}{'SOFTWARE'}{'Vendor'}{'Product'}{'CurrentV
+ersion'}{'Tokens'}{'Encotone'}{'SerialNumberUserAttribute'}{'ODBC'}{'
+Value'}="";
$hash{'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'}{'SOFTWARE'}{'Vendor'}{'Product'}{'CurrentV
+ersion'}{'Tokens'}{'Encotone'}{'SerialNumberUserAttribute'}{'ODBC'}{'
+Type'}="REG_SZ";

[download]
The problem is that I am parsing a textfile and trying to build the hash of hashes dynamically, because I don't know which registry-like keys will be included.

Of course I will need another variable to store where in the hash the current key is to add the "Key name", "Value" , and "Type" for the lines that follow the HKEY... line, but I am not too concerned about that right now.

Anybody have any ideas?

In reply to split string into hash of hashes... by bcarroll

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.