Is there any other way of handling this data...

Since all the "captureID" values are unique, and these are the values that you want to use for fetching information about a given entry, I guess the question is, "why use an array at all?" I think a HoH (or even a simple hash) would work just as well: 

my %outputFiles;

sub setOutputFile
{
    my ($id,$path,$type) = @_;

# HoH method:
    $outputFiles{$id}{path} = $path;
    $outputFiles{$id}{type} = $type;

# or, simple hash method:
#   $outputFiles{$id} = join "=:=", $type, $path;
}

sub getOutputFiles
{
    my $id = shift;

# HoH method:
    my $type = $outputFiles{$id}{type};
    my $path = $outputFiles{$id}{path};

# or, simple hash method:
#   my ( $type, $path ) = split /=:=/, $outputFiles{$id};

# ... do something with $path and $type ...
}

[download]

In reply to Re^3: Array of Hashes by graff
in thread Array of Hashes by ramya2005

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.