use [ ... ] instead of ( ... )

right. It's not a simple array but a reference to a nameless array.
See also   perldoc perllol,   perldoc perlreftut,   perldoc perlref   and   perldoc perldata   for more syntactical details (the usual suspects =))

It's not a simple array but a reference to a nameless array

Just to be exact, it's not a "simple array" either. It's a list, which is not quite the same as an array. You can read about the differences by running perldoc -q "a list and" at a command prompt, or by viewing an online copy.

Just to make things clear (well, it had me stumped for awhile), calin means replacing the () in the values of your page hashes by []. That way, you're assigning an anonymous array to the value of the hash, instead of a list, as you are currently doing.

BTW, the @AoH assignment throws a warning:

Odd number of elements in anonymous hash at aoh.pl line 21.
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That is because of the parentheses instead of square brackets.

As to your second question: it's an array of hashes one of whose values is an array of hashes. So, in a sense, it is a AoHoAoH :)

Thanks robartes, for the explanation. I had changed all the parens to brackets and got warnings (after you reminded me to turn those on, duh). Anyway got it to work using the brackets as you indicated.

—Brad
"A little yeast leavens the whole dough."

As a "i just now made this up rule of thumb", use braces when parens won't do. Parens are just a fragile container for lists, they will flatten by default:

my @one_d = ( (1,2,3), (4,5,6), (7,8,9) );
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is really just a single list. You have to use braces:

my @two_d = ( [1,2,3], [4,5,6], [7,8,9] );
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I prefer to use a reference to an anonymous array for the outside container, maily because there is no mixing of parens and braces, square or curly:

my $two_d = [ [1,2,3], [4,5,6], [7,8,9] ];
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When in doubt, always consult Data::Dumper. Always! If you had used Data::Dumper on your data structure, you would have seen that the problem was within it:

print Dumper \@AoH;

__END__
(it's an AoHoH ... not an AoHoAoH)
$VAR1 = [
          {
            'page' => {
                        'paragraph' => 'lesson1'
                      },
            'chapter' => 'Basic',
            'HASH(0x8638dec)' => undef
          },
          {
            'HASH(0x86fee04)' => undef,
            'page' => {
                        'paragraph' => 'lesson3'
                      },
            'chapter' => 'Advanced'
          }
        ];
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Finally, print out a copy of References quick reference. And don't forget about Data::Dumper! :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

Great rule of thumb, jeffa. BTW, you have this knack for catching me with my zipper down. I always use Data::Dumper...er...almost all time. Thanks for the reminder to use it all the time and for the Quick Ref.

—Brad
"A little yeast leavens the whole dough."

As a "i just now made this up rule of thumb", use braces when parens won't do.

I think I'd rather the rot was "try braces when parens didn't do what you thought they would".

Ditto for curlies and parens when dealing with hashes. Although looking at why, maybe with Data::Dumper, as you say, or looking at what perl told us when we tried to run the thing!!!, is always best. Otherwise we might as well be monkeys bashing away at our keyboards.

I guess I'm still a little confused about when to use parens and when to use brackets.

Parens build a list, brackets build an anonymous array, and return a reference to it. Hashes can only contain scalars as values, so a list won't ever do (except when it contains only one item — but then you don't need a list). An array reference is a scalar, so that will work. As it's the only thing that actually does work properly, Perl's syntax has been optimized to ease access to array references as hash and array values.

$x->{'foo'}[1] actually means: use $x as a hash reference, get the value associated with the string 'foo'. Use this as an array reference and access the second element (with index 1) from it.

Actually you can even split this up into:

$aref = $x->{'foo'};
$aref->[1]
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provided you didn't need autovivification, which were to happen in case $x->{'foo'} was undefined, in the former case — but not in the latter.

If you want to nest something, use brackets. Nested parentheses are meaningless in lists; only the outermost set defines any structure.

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