I think that once you get used to Perl, you will find that complex data structures are far easier in Perl.
The Data::Dumper module (a core module, meaning that all Perl installations have it without further adieu) is very, very helpful.

I think that once you refine your DB application, the unique "id" number will not be so interesting. 

$dbh->do ("CREATE INDEX name_idx ON bookplateleaf (name)");

[download]
That will index the bookplateleaf table so that a SELECT on a "name" has performance like a hash table...far faster than a SELECT without being indexed. The unique record id is normally not that interesting. And you do NOT have to keep track of this unique ID when adding records! (see previous post).

Also normally the index, "name_idx" is also not interesting. You will probably search, i.e. SELECT on "names" and the fact that this index exists is transparent to you. But you have to create it in order for the DB to search efficiently on names, but once you do that, the DB "knows" how to search on that column efficiently.

In reply to Re^5: Concatenation of scaler reference by Marshall
in thread Concatenation of scaler reference by Largins

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.