Hi Y'all. Bless me.. For it has been years since my last post on a forum like this.

I could not think of a way to search this or any other forum/search engine for a question like this.

I have a configuration file that contains fields that are actually the of "fields" in a hash. (Actually a json hash but that's besides the issue at hand.) These will correspond with positional parameters supplied at run-time. For example, here re a couple of lines; each is a set of fields, comma separated: 

    name,address-virtual-email
    movie-role,hoig-boig-loig-shmoig

[download]
(I do need to protect the private data of my client.)

The first line requires that I plunk a value into: 

 o  $js->{name}                     # This is the easy part
 o  $js->{address}{virtual}{email}  # Here's the trouble

[download]
The second line tells to plunk run-time values into 
 o $js->{movie}{role}               # In this example
 o $js->{hoig}{boig}{loig}{shmoig}  # both are trouble!

[download]
There are dozens of such lines in the config file and there's no telling what they will add to the list. So I'm racking my brains out for a way to address the substructures (using the term loosely) in a dynamic fashion. I can certainly combine the string $compound = "{hoig}{boig}{loig}{shmoig}" but it won't help me to address js=>{$compound} because that is just a string and there is no such key in the hash.

Can anyone come up with a way to get at the nested fields in the hash when I can't know in advance which keys (and sub-keys) I will need to address? I don't believe the symbol table will help here; the keys of the hash (and all its sub-hashes) are not in the symbol table (I think).

Thanks! Gracias! Spasiba! Szepem Köszönöm!

-- RP

In reply to Dynamic addressing in a hash by rpaskudniak

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.