Still trying to wrap my head around the 'perl way' of solving problems. I am trying to check for the existence of hash array values in ANOTHER hash. Is there anyway to clean up the condition statements below (to potentially support checks for LARGE arrays)? Am I tackling this problem the wrong way? I am trying to steer clear from arrays and grep. 

    
my $values = {
    'COOKIES' => '1',
    'SILVER'  => '1',
};

my $hash = {
    'COOKIES' => ['CHOCOLATE CHIP', 'PEANUT BUTTER'],
    'METALS'  => ['SILVER', 'GOLD', 'PLATINUM'],
};    

if ( $values->{ $hash->{'COOKIES'}[0] } || $values->{ $hash->{'COOKIES
+'}[1] } ) {
    print "This guy loves cookies.";
        
} elsif ( $values->{ $hash->{'METALS'}[0] } || $values->{ $hash->{'MET
+ALS'}[1] } || $values->{ $hash->{'METALS'}[2] } ) {
    print "This guy loves previous metals."; 

} else {
    print "This guy loves nothing.";
}

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EDIT: I should have made it clear that ordering is important and that 'this guy' is a simple man and can only love one thing. I know that this hints that I should be using an array of arrays instead of a hash of arrays, but the key-value relationship is something I would like to preserve if at all possible.

In reply to Perl style... help me figure this out. by jaydstein

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