Hello Monks, Apologies if this has been asked before, but I am having trouble deciding on the best way to represent a certain data structure in perl.
Basically I want to store the layout of our network (read from a text file generated by another script) It looks something like this:
Main Switch Port
01/01 -> router
01/01 -> server1
01/01 -> hpswitch1 -> port1 -> workstation1
01/01 -> hpswitch1 -> port2 -> workstation2
01/01 -> hpswitch1 -> port3 -> workstation3
01/02 -> hpswitch2 -> port1 -> server 4
01/02 -> hpswitch2 -> port2 -> server5
01/03 -> server2
02/01 -> server3
02/02 -> hpswitch3 -> port1 -> workstation4
02/02 -> hpswitch3 -> port2 -> workstation5
etc...

So the entries like 01/01 are the main switch blade and port numbers, and hanging off those are other servers, or other switches with more ports and more things hanging off them. At the moment I am representing the data like this

For items that aren't switches
%network{$bladeAandPort}{$item} = $host

e.g.
01/01 -> item1 = router
01/01 -> item2 = server1

and for the switches I am nesting another hash inside like this...
%network{$bladeAandPort}{$item}{$switch}{$switchport}

e.g.
01/01 -> item3 -> hpswitch1 -> port01 = workstation1

However, when I come to iterate through all these, I need a way to say:

If the 3rd item in the data structure is a string, then it's a machine name, otherwise it's a ref to another hash, i'e it's a switch. So how do I determine if a value of a hash key is a string or a ref to another hash?

Additionally, is this the best way to represent this kind of stuff. This data map will be changing quite regularly, so I will have to remake the map adding or delete hashes as things get moved around.

The aim of this code will be to compare a stored version of this data with the current version so we get notified of any changes made to the network, E.g. "workstation1 has been unplugged from hpswitch1."

Am I going about this the best way? Hope this is kind of clear, any help greatly appreciated

Nick

In reply to generating hashes of hashes by mrnick1234567

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