Adding a hash to a hash reference.

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

Hello Monks,

I am trying to add a hash to a hash reference. Here is a snippet of the original xml data.

  <policies>
    <New name="Test3"
         date="28-8-104"
         description="asdf"
         link_name="Test3.doc" />
    <Newer name="Whatever"
           date="28-8-104"
           description="asdf"
           link_name="Whatever.doc" />
    <policies2 name="General Admit to GPRMC"
               catagory="General"
               description=""
               link_name="General Admit to GPRMC.doc" />
  </policies>
[download]

Here is the perl code I am using.

use strict;
my $xs = new XML::Simple;
my $xml = $xs->XMLin("$folder_path\\policies.xml", forcearray => 1, ke
+yattr => ['policies']);

my $hash_add = [{
                   $cat => [{
                       'name' => "$name",
                       'link_name' => "$link_name",
                       'description' => "$desc",
                       'date' => "$today_date"
                }]
}];

# Add to hash
push (@{$xml->{'policies'}}, $hash_add);
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

# Sort hash
@{ $xml->{'policies'} } = sort { "\L$a->{name}" cmp "\L$b->{name}"} @{
+ $xml->{'policies'} };
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper($xml);
$xs->XMLout($xml, outputfile => "$folder_path\\policies.xml", attrinde
+nt => 1);
[download]

This is the data dump that I come out with is.

          'policies' => [
                          {
                            'New' => [
                                     {
                                       'date' => '28-8-104',
                                       'name' => 'Test3',
                                       'link_name' => 'Test3.doc',
                                       'description' => 'asdf'
                                     }
                                   ],
                            'policies2' => [
                                           {
                                             'name' => 'General Admit 
+to GPRMC',
                                             'link_name' => 'General A
+dmit to GPRMC.doc',
                                             'description' => '',
                                             'catagory' => 'General'
                                           }
                                         ],
                            'Newer' => [
                                       {
                                         'date' => '28-8-104',
                                         'name' => 'Whatever',
                                         'link_name' => 'Whatever.doc'
+,
                                         'description' => 'asdf'
                                       }
                                     ]
                          },
                          [
                            {
                              'Newer' => {
                                           'date' => '28-8-104',
                                           'name' => 'whatever',
                                           'description' => 'something
+',
                                           'link_name' => 'whatever.do
+c'
                                         }
                            }
                          ]
                        ]
[download]

But my xml file looks like this.

  <policies>
    <New name="Test3"
         date="28-8-104"
         description="asdf"
         link_name="Test3.doc" />
    <Newer name="Whatever"
           date="28-8-104"
           description="asdf"
           link_name="Whatever.doc" />
    <policies2 name="General Admit to GPRMC"
               catagory="General"
               description=""
               link_name="General Admit to GPRMC.doc" />
  </policies>
  <policies>
    <anon name="whatever"
          date="28-8-104"
          description="something"
          link_name="whatever.doc" />
  </policies>
[download]

My question is how do I get it so that it isn't adding the extra policies brackets. And how do I sort the catagories and the name inside of the catagories. I get the error "No such pseudo-hash field "name"" I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to be as thorough as I could. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

Comment on Adding a hash to a hash reference. Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Adding a hash to a hash reference. by ihb (Deacon) on Sep 29, 2004 at 00:28 UTC
Regarding your extra brackets, try using `my $hash_add = { $cat => [{ 'name' => "$name", 'link_name' => "$link_name", 'description' => "$desc", 'date' => "$today_date" }] }; for (keys %$hash_add) { $xml->{policies}->[0]->{$_} = $hash_add->{$_}; }` [download] I haven't used XML::Simple myself but judging from your sample I think this will do what you want. Regarding your sort issue I think you want the extra brackets. In fact, they should all be in own brackets, it seems like. Again, I haven't use XML::Simple myself, but if you have a hash with the category as hash, you don't get it sorted. If you store the category alongside name, date, etc you can have each item represented as a hash (as you do now) and store all the hashes in an array, sorted. Hope this helps, `ihb` Read argumentation in its context!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Adding a hash to a hash reference. by pg (Canon) on Sep 29, 2004 at 03:10 UTC
This must be close to what you wanted (you have to observe the original data structure a little bit more carefully, see how XML::Simple use/understand things): use strict; use XML::Simple; my $xs = new XML::Simple; my $xml = $xs->XMLin("policies.xml", forcearray => 1, keyattr => ['pol +icies']); my $policyproperties = { 'name' => "1", 'link_name' => "2", 'description' => "3", 'date' => "4" }; # Add to hash $xml->{'addedone'} = $policyproperties; print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; # Sort hash #@{ $xml->{'policies'} } = sort { "\L$a->{name}" cmp "\L$b->{name}"} @ +{ $xml->{'policies'} }; use Data::Dumper; print Dumper($xml); $xs->XMLout($xml, outputfile => "policies1.xml", attrindent => 1); [download] Output: `<opt> <New name="Test3" date="28-8-104" description="asdf" link_name="Test3.doc" /> <Newer name="Whatever" date="28-8-104" description="asdf" link_name="Whatever.doc" /> <addedone name="1" date="4" description="3" link_name="2" /> <policies2 name="General Admit to GPRMC" catagory="General" description="" link_name="General Admit to GPRMC.doc" /> </opt>` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Adding a hash to a hash reference. by pg (Canon) on Sep 29, 2004 at 03:23 UTC
A slightly different version that keeps root node: use strict; use XML::Simple; use Data::Dumper; my $xs = new XML::Simple("KeepRoot" => 1); my $xml = $xs->XMLin("policies.xml", forcearray => 1, keyattr => ['pol +icies']); my $new = { 'name' => "1", 'link_name' => "2", 'description' => "3", 'date' => "4" }; # Add to hash print Dumper($xml); $xml->{'policies'}->[0]->{'added'} = $new; print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; # Sort hash #@{ $xml->{'policies'} } = sort { "\L$a->{name}" cmp "\L$b->{name}"} @ +{ $xml->{'policies'} }; print Dumper($xml); $xs->XMLout($xml, outputfile => "policies1.xml", attrindent => 1); [download] Output: `<policies> <New name="Test3" date="28-8-104" description="asdf" link_name="Test3.doc" /> <Newer name="Whatever" date="28-8-104" description="asdf" link_name="Whatever.doc" /> <added name="1" date="4" description="3" link_name="2" /> <policies2 name="General Admit to GPRMC" catagory="General" description="" link_name="General Admit to GPRMC.doc" /> </policies>` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Adding a hash to a hash reference. by bkiahg (Pilgrim) on Sep 29, 2004 at 23:13 UTC
All off these ways overwrite the existing one. Is there a way to add so you have 2 Newer? `<Newer name="Whatever" date="28-8-104" description="asdf" link_name="Whatever.doc" /> <Newer name="1" date="4" description="3" link_name="2" />` [download]	[reply] [d/l]