Re^3: Array of Arrays with Variable Names

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]

Comment on Re^3: Array of Arrays with Variable Names Download Code

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Re^4: Array of Arrays with Variable Names by JWM (Initiate) on Aug 25, 2006 at 18:16 UTC
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]
Re^5: Array of Arrays with Variable Names by mreece (Friar) on Aug 25, 2006 at 18:35 UTC
one last thing, which i should have mentioned in my previous post. you should check the $@ variable for errors following the eval. consider something like: `@combined = eval "$opt_f" ; if ($@) { die "could not construct a combined array from '$opt_f': $@"; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Array of Arrays with Variable Names by Not_a_Number (Prior) on Aug 25, 2006 at 18:05 UTC
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]