If I were a user, I'd be annoyed by that format for $usr_string, so I'm going to assume you're not tied to it, and can have them supply something (slightly) more intuitive like depTar/name instead.

Using the power of unjustified assumptions makes coding much easier, you see... <grin>

my @keys = split '/', $usr_string;
my $ref = $xml;
$ref = $ref->{$_} for @keys;
print $ref;

[download]

Obviously, this completely fails to check for error conditions of any kind (invalid keys owing to typos being the most obvious case). I'm assuming you know how to do that already. :-)


If God had meant us to fly, he would *never* have given us the railroads.
    --Michael Flanders

In reply to Re: "Dynamically" Accessing a HoH by ChemBoy
in thread "Dynamically" Accessing a HoH by Nitrox

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