hi venerable monks,

I'm new to Perl so please be fairly gentle...

I have the following code that's building a rather nice array of data, and I can get to that data. However I have a strong feeling that this is by luck rather than design, especially in the array / hash area near line 22/23!

 #!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;
use LWP::Simple;
use JSON;

### using api from http://mymovieapi.com/ 
# define url for get request 
# ghostbusters url
my $url = "http://mymovieapi.com/?id=tt0087332&type=json&plot=simple&e
+pisode=1&lang=en-US&aka=simple&release=simple&business=0&tech=0";
# receive JSON into $response, via get call using LWP::Simple
my $response = get $url;
# die if we have problems making the GET request
die 'Error making GET request -> $url' unless defined $response;
# usual print line for troubleshooting
#print  Dumper($response);

### using JSON's decode_json we decode the JSON string into an array @
+data
# my array @data gets the decoded JSON string
my @data = decode_json($response);
#print  Dumper($data);

# for each element in the now decoded array, make them accessible 
foreach (@data) 
{ 
    print $_->{title} . " was released in year -> " . $_->{year} . " ,
+ and it is rated " . $_->{rating};
}

[download]

first question... @data is an array but should I be rather trying to build a hash in order to more simply access the key pairs and deal with editing later on?

second question... with @data, I'm accessing the values via $_->{title}, which is a global modifier whatchamacallit, there must be a safer/better way to do this? something like foreach $element in @data... $element->{title} ?

third question... @data is not returning multiple results to necessitate foreach, but I can't access the results without it... I would like to follow my @data...; with something like $_->{title} but it bleats about an uninitialized value?

the JSON response is successful and is noted here so that you can see the depth of the array and the various key pairs.

$VAR1 = {
          'genres' => [
                        'Comedy',
                        'Fantasy',
                        'Sci-Fi'
                      ],
          'plot_simple' => 'Three unemployed parapsychology professors
+ set up sh
op as a unique ghost removal service.',
          'poster' => {
                        'imdb' => 'http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/M
+V5BNTUzMDU
3OTEyNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwOTk1MDE5._V1_SY317_CR2,0,214,317_.jpg',
                        'cover' => 'http://imdb-poster.b0.upaiyun.com/
+000/087/33
2.jpg!cover?_upt=a7275e191389164607'
                      },
          'title' => 'Ghost Busters',
          'year' => 1984,
          'imdb_url' => 'http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/',
          'country' => [
                         'USA'
                       ],
          'also_known_as' => [
                               'Ghostbusters'
                             ],
          'writers' => [
                         'Dan Aykroyd',
                         'Harold Ramis'
                       ],
          'language' => [
                          'English'
                        ],
          'rating_count' => 167966,
          'type' => 'M',
          'directors' => [
                           'Ivan Reitman'
                         ],
          'actors' => [
                        'Bill Murray',
                        'Dan Aykroyd',
                        'Sigourney Weaver',
                        'Harold Ramis',
                        'Rick Moranis',
                        'Annie Potts',
                        'William Atherton',
                        'Ernie Hudson',
                        'David Margulies',
                        'Steven Tash',
                        'Jennifer Runyon',
                        'Slavitza Jovan',
                        'Michael Ensign',
                        'Alice Drummond',
                        'Jordan Charney'
                      ],
          'imdb_id' => 'tt0087332',
          'runtime' => [
                         '105 min'
                       ],
          'filming_locations' => 'Greystone Park & Mansion - 905 L
+oma Vista
Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA',
          'rating' => '7.8',
          'release_date' => 19841202
        };

[download]

In reply to Array / Hash Confusion! by andy503

Title:
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