Attempting to clarify data and objective by redoing sample code 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
# small snippet to explore dealing with complex data structures and du
+plicates/uniques and consolidation
my %pets;
my @info;
#() below only signify that multiple elements possible in 3rd and 4th 
+elements of $info[i]
$a="Mary":"Owens":"cat":"white";
$b="Bill":"Thompson":"cat,dog":"white,black";
$c="Bill":"Thompson":"hamster,cat":"black,brown";
$d="Bill":"Smith":"goldfish,dog,turtle":"yellow,spotted,green";

push @info,$a,$b,$c,$d;



#how to organize this data and loop thru to populate %pets from @info 
+and extract output as below
#desire to loop through @info and populate %pets with structure for pe
+ts hash
#$pets{first}{last}{species}{color}
#with {first} and {last} containing scalars
#with {species} and {color} containing arrays

exit;

# Desired output from printing %pets: single line with unique elements
+ for the species and color arrays and fields separated by ":"

"Mary":"Owens":"cat":"white"
"Bill":"Thompson":"cat","dog","hamster":"white","black","brown"
"Bill":"Smith":"goldfish","dog","turtle":"yellow","spotted","green"

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In reply to Re^2: Struggling with complex data structures and doing useful operations on their elements and populating from arrays by hiyall
in thread Struggling with complex data structures and doing useful operations on their elements and populating from arrays by hiyall

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