I am using perl grep() to perform a fast lookup on a basic table made up of a array of arrays ie 
$table=[[1,2,3],[a,b,d],[A,D,C]];

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the current lookup does a 
@answers = grep { $_->[0] =~ /a/i && $_->[2] =~ /C/} @$table;

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I am trying to think of a way to make the search more flexible I can search for any number of array elements. I've tried calling a function 
%search_elements=(0=>a,2=>C);

@answers = grep { scan($_,\%search_elements) } @$table;

sub scan {
    my($row,$refToArgsHash)=@_;
    foreach (keys %$refToArgsHash)
    {
        unless($row->[$_] =~ /$refToArgsHash->{$_}/i)
        {
                         return 0;    #fail
        }
    }
    return 1; # ok all match
    
}

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But this is really slow. Does anyone think of a way of making this both flexible and fast ? or suggest a new direction to try. Many Thanks. Wertert

In reply to grep flex by wertert

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