Hi cal.

Sorry to do this to you but...

<Lecture>

• The first problem that you have (and that any of us who wish to help will have) is that you arent doing use strict; and that because of the lack of strictures are using symbolic refs. This is a big no-no (well, unless you can explain exactly why its a big no-no ;-) There are many reasons why its a bad plan, have a read here for one of the best explanations there is. %99.9999 times symbolic refs can be easily converted into keys of a hash or elements of an array with an amazing increase in clarity and as a side effect sanity.
• The next problem you have (and this is more IMO than the symbolic references issue) is the for loop. Why are you going through so much pain? The C style for loop can be replaced with the much easier to understand

  #or should it be 0..$total_elements??
  for my $x (1..$total_elements+1) {
  
  }
  [download]

• The third thing that you are bound to get harped at for is manually creating HTML. use CGI; or any other equivelent module. It makes your code cleaner and your html correct. (not to mention saves loads of typing, especially for tables and the like)

</Lecture>

So now lets look at your code:

for ($x=1; $x <= $total_elements +1; $x++)
{$varname = "fname_menu$x";$NEW_BUS_TXT = ${"NEW_BUS_TXT$x"};

$$varname = " <table border='1' width='100%' bgcolor='#BBEEEE'> <tr>
<td width='100%'>
<B>($x.)Using the pull down menu Select a member</B>

${NEW_PD$x}

}
[download]

Hmm.. first thing I see (beyond the above serious issues :-)is that your code is messy and confusing, so Ill clean it up a bit.. But I cant. Because there is no trailing " to finish your quoted section. So Ill make some dangerous assumptions about your code and show you what this could would look like (if I used symbolic refs that is)

for my $x (1..$total_elements+1) {
    $varname = "fname_menu$x";
    $NEW_BUS_TXT = ${"NEW_BUS_TXT$x"};
    $$varname = <<"EOF_HTML";
<table border='1' width='100%' bgcolor='#BBEEEE'> 
    <tr>
        <td width='100%'>
            <B>($x.)Using the pull down menu Select a member</B>
    ${NEW_PD$x}
EOF_HTML
}
[download]

This stuff is scary... Sorry, but it's true.

What I think you are doing is trying to do is build a numbered set of tables, but the problem is where is the end of the table/row/cell? Is it in the mysterious symbolic reference ${NEW_PD$x}? And what is this for:$NEW_BUS_TXT = ${"NEW_BUS_TXT$x"};

So to be honest there isnt a lot that I (or IMO anyone else here) can do with this code.

OTOH: I can give you some more tips.

• Read up about arrays. This stuff with ${Name$x} where $x is a number is a really crappy way of emulating an array. wouldn't

  my @fname_menu;
  foreach $x (0..$last_elem) {
    $fname_menu[$x]="Some Value maybe even HTML";
  }
  [download]

  and the corresponding

  print $fname_menu[$_] foreach 0..$#fname_menu;
  [download]

  Be much easier and saner to deal with?
• Read up about hashes (aka associative arrays). These are like real arrays but instead of having numbered elements they have named elements. so we get something like

  my %hash;
  $hash{demerphq}="JAPH";
  $hash{cal}="JAPL";      # learner.. :-)
  print $hash{cal}," ... ",$hash{demerphq};
  [download]

• Always use strict. If it doesnt work under strict then it shouldnt work. (Yes there are exceptions to this rule, but if you cant explain exactly why they are exceptions then forget it, it aint an exception.) Put use strict into your code and then start compiling. Judging by your post you are going to have lot and lots of errors. But thats ok, if you are under strict and come and ask how to sort out your error (prefereably with complete code) then there are literally hunderds of people here who will help you make the move to bondage and discipline.

Anyway, hope this is a bit of help at least. And please dont give up. Leave that use strict; right at the top of every script, exactly where it belongs. Fight and fight until all those nasty errors go away, in the end youll be happy you did (not to mention being a far better programmer).

Yves / DeMerphq
--
When to use Prototypes?

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