It looks as if you're trying to make an array of hashes. 

@services = ( { serviceid => '1',
                name      => 'servicea',
                host      => [ qw( hosta hostb ) ] },
              { serviceid => '2',
                name      => 'serviceb',
                host      => [ qw( hostc ) ] },
             );

[download]

With this, you can loop through your services like so: 

foreach my $svc ( @services ) {
    # list of hosts: @{ $svc->{host} }
    # name: $svc->{name}
}

[download]

If you want, you can make a hash keyed on one of those fields instead. For example, keyed on the service name: 

%services
    = ( 'servicea' => { serviceid => '1',
                        host      => [ qw( hosta hostb ) ] },
        'serviceb' => { serviceid => '2',
                        host      => [ qw( hostc ) ] },
      );

[download]

With this, you can address a particular service by name and get the field you want. Examples: @{ $services{'servicea'}->{host} } and $services{'servicea'}->{serviceid}.

Hope this helps.

In reply to Re: Question about data structures by kyle
in thread Question about data structures by wishartz

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