Hey monks,

I have a subroutine that builds a command. It allows for users to re-enter input if they happen to mess up. I have no problem building everything from input, however, I am not sure how to build the flag if someone passes the variables to the subroutine.

Basically, I am trying to allow the flags to be passed to the subroutine (e.g., buildCommand("bobjones"); ), but if they send that to the subroutine at this point, nothing gets returned...

UPDATE
Sorry, I forgot about the title... Woops! Well, the reason I said "Simple Hash Question" is because I was thinking that maybe it'd be easier to build the flags as a hash and then return them. As you can see, if $user gets passed at this point, it will never be added to $flag as "-user $user". In order for this to occur the individual must select option 1 and then enter the user, even after it is passed. This is obviously because anything passed to the subroutine is not evaluated. I was thinking I could do it this way (see CODE below ORIGINAL CODE) with scalars, but there must be an easier way to do it, possibly with a hash...

ORIGINAL CODE

sub buildCommand {
    my ($user,$uid,$group,$home,$create,$shell)=@_;
    my $flag;

    while (1) {
       print qq {
1. User:        $user
2. UID:         $uid
3. Group:       $group
4. Home Dir:    $home
5. Comment:     $comment
6. Shell:       $shell

D. Done
};

       print "Please Choose An Option From Above: "
       chomp(my $ans=<STDIN>);

       if ($ans == 1) {
          $user = getInput("Enter Username: ");
          $flag = "-user $user";
       }
       elsif ($ans == 2) {
          $uid = getInput("Enter UID: ");
          $flag .= " -uid $uid";
       }
       elsif ($ans == 3) {
          $group = getInput("Enter Group: ");
          $flag .= " -group $group";
       }
       elsif ($ans == 4) {
          $home = getInput("Enter Home: ");
          $flag .= " -home $home";
       }
       elsif ($ans == 5) {
          $comment = getInput("Enter Comment: ");
          $flag .= " -comment $comment";
       }
       elsif ($ans == 6) {
          $shell = getInput("Enter Shell: ");
          $flag .= " -shell=$shell";
       }
       elsif ($ans =~ /d/i && defined($user)) {
          return($flag);
       }
       else {
          print "INVALID OPTION!\n";
       }
    }
}

[download]
WORKING (BUT NOT VERY GOOD) WAY OF DOING IT

sub buildCommand {
    my ($user,$uid,$group,$home,$create,$shell)=@_;
    my $flag;

    while (1) {
       print qq {
1. User:        $user
2. UID:         $uid
3. Group:       $group
4. Home Dir:    $home
5. Comment:     $comment
6. Shell:       $shell

D. Done
};

       print "Please Choose An Option From Above: "
       chomp(my $ans=<STDIN>);

       if ($ans == 1) {
          $user = getInput("Enter Username: ");
       }
       elsif ($ans == 2) {
          $uid = getInput("Enter UID: ");
       }
       elsif ($ans == 3) {
          $group = getInput("Enter Group: ");
       }
       elsif ($ans == 4) {
          $home = getInput("Enter Home: ");
       }
       elsif ($ans == 5) {
          $comment = getInput("Enter Comment: ");
       }
       elsif ($ans == 6) {
          $shell = getInput("Enter Shell: ");
       }
       elsif ($ans =~ /d/i && defined($user)) {
          last;
       }
       else {
          print "INVALID OPTION!\n";
       }
    }
    if (defined($user)) {
       $flag = "-user $user";
    }
    if (defined($uid)) {
       $flag = " -uid $uid";
    }
    if (defined($group)) {
       $flag = " -group $group";
    }
    if (defined($home)) {
       $flag = " -home $home";
    }
    if (defined($comment)) {
       $flag .= " -comment $comment";
    }
    if (defined($shell)) {
       $flag .= " -shell $shell";
    }
    return($flag);
}

[download]

In reply to Simple Hash Question by walkingthecow

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