Hi!

Consider this as a regex problem. First we need to put the options into an order suitable for regex'ing then we'll apply a regex to the string.

Let's assume, for example, that our primary options are represented by the vowels 'a', 'e' ... , 'y' and that we may have one and only one. Let's assume that the primary option 'a' may have a string and must have one of options 'b', 'c', or 'd' etc.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use Getopt::Long;

GetOptions(\my %h
    ,qw(a:s b c d)
    ,qw(e=s f g h)
    ,qw(i:o j k l m n)
    ,qw(o=o p q r s t)
    ,qw(u:f w x)
    ,qw(y=f z)
    );

### dump: %h
### 'Order them ...'
my $command_line;
for my $option ('a'..'z') {
    $command_line.="$option "
        if (exists $h{$option});
    }
### dump: $command_line
### 'Parse $command_line with a regex ...'
if ($command_line !~ m{^(\ba\b( [b..d])|e|i|o|u|y) $}) { # conflicting
+ options
    die "Conflicting options in '$command_line'!";
    }
    
### "We're good to go with '$command_line'!"
exit;
[download]

Building on the above we get

package Getopt::Long::Confused;

use Regexp::Assemble;

sub check {
    ### Params::Validate::validate_pos(@_,{ type=>HASHREF },{ type=>HA
+SHREF });
    my ($option_HREF,$rule_HREF)=@_;
    
    my $string='';
    my $re=Regexp::Assemble->new();
    for my $rule (keys %$rule_HREF) {
          # Add the regex for this list
          $re->add($rule_HREF->{$rule});
          # Make a copy of our option hash
          my %option_copy=%$option_HREF;
          for my $option (split ' ',$rule) {
              if ($option eq '*') { # Any and all leftovers
                  for my $option (keys %option_copy) {
                        $string.="$option ";
                      }
                }
            elseif (exists $option_copy{$option}) { # Add the option's
+ name and remove it from the copy
              $string.="$option ";
              delete $option_copy{$option};
                  };
              };
          # Separate the rules with a new line
          $string.="\n";
        }
    ### dump: $string,$re->as_string()
    if ($string =~ m{$re}m) {
          return "good!";
        }
    else {    
        return "bad";
        };
    }; # check:

    0**0
[download]

which we can invoke with

#!/use/bin/env perl

use Getopt::Long;
use Getopt::Long::Confused;

GetOptions(\my %h
    ,qw(a:s b c d)
    ,qw(e=s f g h)
    ,qw(i:o j k l m n)
    ,qw(o=o p q r s t)
    ,qw(u:f w x)
    ,qw(y=f z)
    );
my %option=(
    # after placing options in this order 
    #                => check with this regex
    'a b c d *'      => '^a( [bcd]) $'       # a requires one of b, c 
+or d
    ,'e f g h *'     => '^e( [fgh])? $'      # e requires at most one 
+of f g or h
    ,'i j k l m n *' => '^$'                 # don't allow i and o opt
+ions
    ,'o p q r s t *' => '^$'                    # in this example
    ,'u v w x *'     => '^u( v)|( w x) $'    # u requires v OR w and x
    ,'y z *'         => '^y z $'             # y requires z
    );
   
if (my $warning=Getopt::Long::Confused::check(\%h,\%option)) {
    die $warning;
    }

### 'done!'
exit;
[download]

---

---

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! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

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:
	&		&
	<		&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.