in reply to Array of Arrays with Variable Names

I'm not really following what you are trying to do, but it sounds to me like you need either a Hash of Arrays or an Array of Hashes (where the hashes are a single key => value pair and the value is your array) if you need to preserve order. 

#!/usr/bin/perl -l

use strict;
use warnings;

my %unordered = (
    foo => [qw(foo baz baz)],
    bar => [0 .. 9],
);

print for @{ $unordered{foo} };


print "--------";

my @ordered = (
    { foo => [qw(foo baz baz)] },
    { bar => [0 .. 9] },
);

print for @{ $ordered[1]->{bar} };

[download]
Hope this helps. :/

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)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Array of Arrays with Variable Names
by JWM (Initiate) on Aug 25, 2006 at 17:27 UTC
    This reply apples to at least two of the above entries, the third I haven't had a chance to address. All of the data is being pulled in from a file of the following structure: 
    @array1=(
'entry1',
'entry2',
...
);

@array2=(
'entry1',
'entry2,
...
)

...

    [download]
    There are a few rules I have to follow here: 1. I can not modify the format of the data file - it is not static, nor do I 'own' it where I can change the way it's generated. 2. The arrays can not be in the script itself . I guess the whole question boils down to this, how can I have the following: 
    @combined = ( $opt_f );

    [download]
    ..interpret the following: 
    $opt_f = '@array1,@array2'

    [download]
    As a list of arrays which are then combined, and not simply treat them as regular entries, strings "@array1", "@array2"?
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[d/l]
[select]
      if you absolutely must do it this way, here is how (use eval): 
      ## this is an example, works just as well if these arrays come from a 
+require'd file
my @array1 = qw(a b c);
my @array2 = qw(d e f);

## again, just an example, works just as well if this comes from GetOp
+t
my $opt_f = '@array1, @array2';

## here is the magical and evil eval
my @combined = eval "$opt_f";

print "@combined\n";

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
        AHA! Thanks, mreece (and others). That's what I'm looking for - and it's working now. From that suggestion, I've constructed the following snippet which is just a small portion of a much larger work: 
        #!/usr/local/bin/perl5 -w
use Getopt::Std;
require "/path/datafile";
getopts('f:');
chomp $opt_f ;
if ( $opt_f ) {
        @combined =  eval "$opt_f" ;
}
foreach $entry ( @combined )
{
        print "$entry \n";
}

        [download]
        Thanks for your patience with a beginner. I read through the warnings about variables in array names before I posted the original post, so I was expecting a lot of people to jump onto that detail... thanks for taking the time to fully understand the problem.
[reply]
[d/l]

        mreece++ (similarly wojtyk below)... at least if we've correctly interpreted the OP's requirements.

        However, since the OP explicitly requested an Array of Arrays, I'd modify the code somewhat (and add a minimum of error checking):

        # Dummy stuff for testing:
my @array1 = qw ( a b c );
my @array2 = qw ( d e f );
my @et_cetera = qw ( etc etc etc );
my $opt_f = '@array1,@array2,@et_cetera';

my @AoA;
for ( split /,/, $opt_f ) {
  my $array_ref = eval '\\' . $_;
  die "Bad input: '$_' doesn't seem to exist!\n" if $@;
  push @AoA, $array_ref;
}
print "@$_\n" for @AoA;

        [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

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