The code I'm using to initialize the whole structure is:

my $bros= {'1958' => [], '1959' => [], '1960' => [], '1961' => [],
           '1962' => [], '1963' => [], '1964' => []};
[download]

since I was lazy and wanted to pre-build my data structure.

Here's the Data::Dumper listing of before and after the grep:

before grep:

$VAR1 = \[
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Bertelson',
              'first' => 'Gordon',
            },
            {
              'state' => '',
              'last' => 'Blaise',
              'first' => 'Larry',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Douda',
              'first' => 'Henry B.',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'NSW 221',
              ' => 'Australia',
              'last' => 'McHolick',
              'first' => 'Dwane',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Murray',
              'first' => 'Melvin',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Perry',
              'first' => 'Larry',
            },
            {
              'state' => '',
              'last' => 'Peterson',
              'first' => 'Ken',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Rianda',
              'first' => 'Dave',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Steffanoff',
              'first' => 'Nick',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'CA',
              'last' => 'Turner',
              'first' => 'Paul',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Wilson',
              'first' => 'Dick',
            },
            {}
          ];


after grep:

$VAR1 = \[
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Bertelson',
              'first' => 'Gordon',
            },
            {
              'state' => '',
              'last' => 'Blaise',
              'first' => 'Larry',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Douda',
              'first' => 'Henry B.',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'NSW 221',
              'last' => 'McHolick',
              'first' => 'Dwane',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Murray',
              'first' => 'Melvin',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Perry',
              'first' => 'Larry',
            },
            {
              'state' => '',
              'last' => 'Peterson',
              'first' => 'Ken',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Rianda',
              'first' => 'Dave',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Steffanoff',
              'first' => 'Nick',
            },
            {
              'state' => 'OR',
              'last' => 'Wilson',
              'first' => 'Dick',
            },
            {} <- here's the empty hash
          ];
[download]

so you can see exactly what I'm saying by there's an empty hash where Paul Turner's information was.

As far as removing the element, I thought using the negative grep would find everything that didn't match what I wanted and put it in the array. I thought I was on the right track with the negative grep but I don't understand the empty hash in the array still being there.

My assumption is that grep is choking for whatever reason on that empty hash, so is a negative grep the way to go here?

Err. There is an empty hash at the bottom of your before-grep dump as well. Is that a posting mistake, or is it actually there during your code's execution?

Makeshifts last the longest.

Good catch! That is being added when the program runs, it wasn't a posting error. Looks like I need to get my eyes checked. :)

I've narrowed it down to this bit of code, but for the life of me I can't see how or why it would be adding the empty hash. I've also noticed that I lose the data in the 1958 array after the first iteration of the for loop.

Basically I'm going through each of the years I have data for and seeing if my match appears in any of those years. If it does, it gets put in to @res for display in a list.

Here's the offending code:

for $find qw((1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964)){
    $index = 0; # index is defined to go down the array of each year
    while (defined $bros->{$find}->[$index]->{$key}){
           if ($bros->{$find}->[$index]->{$key} =~ /$data/i){
           # since we found one, we push the brothers data structure a
+nd
           # year of graduation in to the results hash
           push (@res,{brother => $bros->{$find}->[$index], year => $f
+ind});
           } # end if
    $index++;
    } # end while
} # end find
[download]

I'd appreciate anything you could suggest as to where this might be adding the empty hash!

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