I have a script that parses through a database of my music to create dynamic playlists. It reads in a text file with input criteria. At one point, my code parses through the text file looking for input variables, like so:

### Find values to be included.   Maybe there is a way to do this in a
+ loop?
    ($inc_albums)=$content=~/inc_albums=(.*?)\n/;
    ($inc_genres)=$content=~/inc_genres=(.*?)\n/;
    ($inc_artists)=$content=~/inc_artists=(.*?)\n/;
    ($inc_songs)=$content=~/inc_songs=(.*?)\n/;
    ($inc_ratings)=$content=~/inc_ratings(.*?)\n/;
    ($inc_year)=$content=~/inc_year(.*?)\n/;

    ### Find values to be excluded
    ($exc_albums)=$content=~/exc_albums=(.*?)\n/;
    ($exc_genres)=$content=~/exc_genres=(.*?)\n/;
    ($exc_artists)=$content=~/exc_artists=(.*?)\n/;
    ($exc_songs)=$content=~/exc_songs=(.*?)\n/;
    ($exc_ratings)=$content=~/exc_ratings(.*?)\n/;
    ($exc_year)=$content=~/exc_year(.*?)\n/;

[download]

you can see the repetitive pattern here. I have this suspicion, that I could could all of this with a 2 or 3 line loop. I also suspect that using references will help me do that. The problem is: I'm still fairly new to Perl, and wading through "Intermediate Perl", and it hasn't quite clicked in my head if:

  • I can do execute this repetitive code in a loop, just replacing the variable "$inc_****" and "$exc__***" on each pass (maybe with a list of values from an array?).
  • references are actually useful in doing this

    • I appreciate any tips anyone can offer that might help me along.

    In reply to Changing variable names in a loop by Mad_Mac

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