This sounds like a job for OO. Build two indecies of people objects, one by id and the other by name. Of course, both indecies are hashes where the value is a reference to the correct person object. Then give your object get methods:

result: 

{
  package Person;

  sub new 
  {
    my $proto = shift;
    my $class = ref($proto) || $proto;
    my $self  = {};
    bless ($self, $class);
  
    # Add member variables.
    $self->{Name}         = @_ ? shift : die "Person Constructor expec
+ted a name";
    $self->{Rank}         = @_ ? shift : die "Person Constructor expec
+ted a rank";
    $self->{SerialNumber} = @_ ? shift : die "Person Constructor expec
+ted a serial number";
  
    return $self;
  }

  sub Name
  {
    my $self = shift;
    return $self->{Name};
  }

  sub SerialNum
  {
    my $self = shift;
    return $self->{SerialNumber};
  }
  
  # And whatever other methods you want.
}

my $dad = Person->new( 'dad', 'top dog', 1 );

my %ByName;
while( ReadPeopleDataFromSomewhere() )
{
    my $person = Person->new( $name, $rank, $serial );
    
    # Error check for repeat names? 
    # I didn't, but that might not be a bad idea.
    $ByName{$person->Name()} = $person;

    # Likewise, one hopes that serial numbers are unique.
    $BySerial{$person->SerialNum()} = $person;
}

[download]

The above sample code is untested but gives you the idea. You should definately read perltoot.

In reply to Re: Complex Data Structures? by Adam
in thread Complex Data Structures? by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.