Becky has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have 2 arrays and want to know which elements occur in both.

@array1 = (1,2,214,215,216,217,218,219,220,221);
@array2 = (214,215,216,217,218,219);

What I need to end up with is another array containing just those numbers that occur in both array1 and array2, so that I can then compare this new array with a third array and repeat the process.

Thanks!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: comparing arrays
by pbeckingham (Parson) on Apr 28, 2004 at 11:23 UTC

    Here is a way: 

      #! /usr/bin/perl -w
  use strict;

  my @array1 = (1,2,214,215,216,217,218,219,220,221);
  my @array2 = (214,215,216,217,218,219);

  my %hash2 = map {$_ => undef} @array2;
  for (@array1)
  {
    print $_, "\n" if exists $hash2{$_};
  }

    [download]
    But as phenom says, Array::Compare is better.

[reply]
[d/l]
Re: comparing arrays
by phenom (Chaplain) on Apr 28, 2004 at 11:03 UTC
    Try Array::Compare. Also try the super search here - I'm pretty sure this question has just come up recently.
[reply]
      Come to think of it, List::Compare would probably be more appropriate. Try them both - let me know which one worked better.
[reply]
Re: comparing arrays
by Art_XIV (Hermit) on Apr 28, 2004 at 12:30 UTC

    perlfaq4 contains the canonical response, although one of the ::Compare modules mentioned above may be better for your purposes.

    Hanlon's Razor - "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"
[reply]
Re: comparing arrays
by edan (Curate) on Apr 28, 2004 at 14:57 UTC
[reply]
Re: comparing arrays
by QM (Parson) on Apr 28, 2004 at 13:58 UTC 
    perldoc -q intersection

Found in C:\Perl\lib\pod\perlfaq4.pod
  How do I compute the difference of two arrays?  How do I compute the
+ intersection of two arrays?
            Use a hash. Here's code to do both and more. It assumes th
+at
            each element is unique in a given array:

                @union = @intersection = @difference = ();
                %count = ();
                foreach $element (@array1, @array2) { $count{$element}
+++ }
                foreach $element (keys %count) {
                    push @union, $element;
                    push @{ $count{$element} > 1 ? \@intersection : \@
+difference }, $element;
                }

            Note that this is the *symmetric difference*, that is, all
            elements in either A or in B but not in both. Think of it 
+as an
            xor operation.

    [download]

    -QM
    --
    Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

[reply]
[d/l]
Re: comparing arrays
by McMahon (Chaplain) on Apr 28, 2004 at 15:00 UTC
[reply]
Re: comparing arrays
by EdwardG (Vicar) on Apr 28, 2004 at 12:28 UTC
    ...so that I can then compare this new array with a third array and repeat the process

    To determine what elements are common to a set of arrays you should use hashes, since that is the mechanism best suited to checking if values have previously been encountered.

    $h{$_}++ for (@array1,@array2);

@common_elements = grep {$h{$_} > 1} keys %h;

print "@common_elements";

    [download]

    With a little imagination you could make this generic to operate on N arrays, not just two.

[reply]
[d/l]

      This breaks if the one array has multiple occurences of the same elements. Of course we don't konw what the requirments are from the specs.


      ___________
      Eric Hodges
[reply]

        That's right, it assumes that each element is unique in a given array, just like the version in the faq.

         

[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom