@newarray = $hash{ $w1 }->{ $w2 }->{ words };

$hashref = $hash{ $w1 }->{ $w2 }->{ words };
foreach my $k (keys %$hashref) {
    print " * $k: $hashref->{$k}\n";
}
[download]

Perhaps if you want an array, perhaps all you want is the keys?

Updated: Added the omitted { words } term in the keys expression.

Update2: Added omitted paren as noted by johngg.

What you appear to be asking for is

my @wordsList;
for my $word ( keys %{ $hash{ $w1 }{ $w2 }{ words } } ) {
    push @wordsList, ( $key ) x $hash{ $w1 }{ $w2 }{ words }{ $key };
}

print @wordsList[ rand( @wordsList ) ];
[download]

There are probably bits of that you do not understand, but rather than my trying to guess which they are, it's easier if you ask. In this thread rather than starting a new one.

Note: I've omitted the -> between the terms of the hash references as they are optional and I personal don't think thay add clarity, but your way is fine also.

I think you might have a typo in your

print @wordsList[ rand( @wordsList ];
[download]

perhaps you wanted

print @wordsList[ rand @wordsList ];
[download]

Cheers,

JohnGG

This worked like a charm, Thanks!

Better yet, I think I can make some sense out of how the references work.

one question: In the line:

for my $word ( keys %{ $hash{ $w1 }{ $w2 }{ words } } ) {
[download]

What does 'keys' stand for? Is it a reference?

Thank you very much for your help!

-mox

keys is a function for pulling out all the keys from a hash. There is also a values function for ... er ... pulling out the values. You should also be aware of each. Here is an example.

use strict;
use warnings;

my %dets = (
   name => q{fred},
   age  => 33);

while (my ($key, $value) = each %dets)
{
    # Do something with key and value here
}
[download]

Note that you can't predict the order in which these functions will present keys, values or key/value pairs.

I hope this is of use.

Cheers,

JohnGG

What does 'keys' stand for? Is it a reference?

'keys' is a Perl built-in function. It returns a list of the keys in a given hash. You should read the documentation (which I already pointed you to above).

--
<http://dave.org.uk>

"The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
-- Chip Salzenberg

So, in $hash{ $w1 }->{ $w2 }->{ words } (which can be written more concisely without the unnecessary arrows - $hash{ $w1 }{ $w2 }{ words }) you have a reference to a hash. And you want to get all of the keys from that hash. So use the keys function. Only slight complexity is that 'keys' takes a hash as a parameter, not a hash reference. So you need to dereference your reference.

@newarray = keys %{ $hash{ $w1 }{ $w2 }{ words } };
[download]

Update: s/values/keys/g

Update: On re-reading your question, I think that BrowserUk has understood it better than me.

Update: Fixed doc link.

$hash =
    {
        total_counts => tot_counts,
        words => {
                       nw => 1,
                 }
    };

@finalarray = get_array($hash);
print "@finalarray";

sub get_array {
    my($hash) = @_;
    my $array = [];
    if(ref $hash eq 'HASH') {
        foreach (keys %$hash) {
            if(ref $hash->{$_} eq 'HASH') {
                push @{$array} , $_;
                push @{$array} , get_array($hash->{$_});
            }
            else {
                push @{$array} , $_;
                push @{$array} , $hash->{$_};
            }
        }
    }
    return @$array;
}

Thank you very much for the powerful bit of code. It didn't quite work for this problem, but I will certainly stick it in my pocket and use it in the future! Do you keep a library of handy code or did you just spin this off just now? In either case, Thank you very much for your time and efforts.

-mox

my @array=();

for my $word (keys %{$has{$w1}->{$w2}}) {
  push @array, ($word) x $hash{$w1}->{$w2}->{$word};
}
[download]

Thank you for your help. I ended up using something very similar to your example.

cheers

-mox