I need to get at the duration and function name for any root, parent, current key.

If I understand you correctly, you are starting with a 2-D array (a flat table) such that in each row of 6 columns (0-5): column 0 is meaningless, columns 1-3 combine to make up a primary key, and columns 4 and 5 are the data of interest for each primary key.

If all rows are unique in terms of the tuples formed by columns 1-3, then you really only need a simple hash, using the concatenation of these three fields as the hash key -- e.g., building on Zaxo's example: 

my %table;

while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    my @line = split /,/;
    my $key = join ",", @line[1..3];
    if ( exists( $table{$key} )) {
        warn "oops -- duplicate key $key... is there a problem with th
+at?\n";
        next;  # just in case there's a problem with that
    }
    $table{$key} = join ",", @line[4,5];
}
# later on, if you really need the individual columns from the
# hash key or the hash value, just use "split /,/" as needed

# <update>
# note that you can easily search for groups of hash keys:

my @root23keys = sort grep /^23,/, keys %table;
my @r23p34keys = sort grep /^23,34,/, keys %table;

# and so on... </update>


__DATA__
1,2,3,4,100,A
10,20,30,40,200,B
11,21,31,41,300,C
12,22,32,42,400,D
13,23,33,43,500,E
13,23,33,53,600,F
13,23,33,63,700,G
13,23,34,73,800,H
13,23,34,83,900,I
13,24,35,93,1000,J
13,24,36,103,1100,K

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In reply to Re: Hashes by graff
in thread Hashes by flemi_p

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