in reply to WWW::Mechanize with optional fields

Given that each form field name must be unique in a form just use a hash reference:
my @names = qw(name age location); # add do this list whenever # make a hash reference and populate it @$fields{@names} = ( ... list of corresponding values ...);
This expression may seem obscure, I'll explain it a bit. Consider:
# a normal hash assignment - scalar context $field{'name'} = 'Richard'; # a normal hash assignment - list context @field{qw(name age)} = qw(Richard 24);
So, @$fields{@names} does this: Using strict you must declare the symbol $fields before accessing it:
use strict; my @names = qw(name age location); # add do this list whenever # make a hash reference and populate it my $fields = {}; # declare $fields being a hash reference @$fields{@names} = ( ... list of corresponding values ...);
That way you can pass the hash reference directly to submit_form:
$mech->submit_form( form_name => $search_form, fields => $fields, } );
The second question I cannot answer because I don't know how you do it...
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