This is just a slightly more complex version of the "convert a list to a hierachical hash subscript" question. 
use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;

my $data = str2data('foo[1].bar.baz[0]', 123);
print Dumper($data), "\n";

sub str2data {
    my($string, $value) = @_;
    my $r = \my $return;
    $r = $1 ? \$$r->{$1} : \$$r->[$2]
       while $string =~ /\G(?:\.?(\w+)|\[(\d+)\])/g;
    $$r = $value;
    $return;
}

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Note - I'm assuming that the input is known to be valid and that $1 can never be '0'. If $1 could ever be '0' then insert 'defined' in the obvious place.

In reply to Re: Construct a data structure from a string by nobull
in thread Construct a data structure from a string by saintmike

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