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

Hi. I'm sorry if this question has popped up before but I've been searching and trying stuff and can't get it to work. I'm using XML::Simple to generate a XML file. Another script requests that file and uses XML::Simple to read it (XMLIn()). The result of XMLIn() is: 
$VAR1 = [
          [
            {
              'BERICHT' => 'test',
              'IP' => '127.0.0.1',
              'NAAM' => 'test'
            },
            {
              'BERICHT' => 'test',
              'IP' => '127.0.0.1',
              'NAAM' => 'Htbaa'
            }
          ],
          {
            'rm' => 'start',
            'dummy' => ''
          }
        ];

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I've figured out how I can access the stuff like BERICHT, NAAM and IP. But I can't get 'rm' and 'dummy'. To get the contents of the array in this scalar I use 
foreach (@{$ref}) {    
    print "<b>". $_->{'NAAM'} . "</b><br>";
}

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But how can I get 'rm' and 'dummy' ? I've tried a lot of different stuff but somehow can not get the data. All the examples on the web use a hash (instead $VAR1 it's %VAR1). But as long as I kind manipulate the result of XLMin() (or can I?) I have no idea on how to reach that data. Any help is more than welcome.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Accessing data in scalar with hashes and arrays
by grep (Monsignor) on Nov 25, 2006 at 21:46 UTC
    This might help. 
    my $var = 
          [   # this signifies an anon array

            [ # Here is the first element of the top anon array - it i
+s also an anon array
                {
                  'BERICHT' => 'test',
                  'IP' => '127.0.0.1',
                  'NAAM' => 'test'
                },
                {
                  'BERICHT' => 'test',
                  'IP' => '127.0.0.1',
                  'NAAM' => 'Htbaa'
                }
            ], # end of 1st value of the top anon array

            {  # Here is the 2nd value of the top anon array - It's an
+ anon hash 
                'rm' => 'start',
                'dummy' => ''
            }
        ];
# So to access 'rm' you need the 2nd element of the top array (aka [1]
+)
# Deref that with $var->[1] 
# The 2nd element is an anon hash. That is where you need the hash key
+ 'rm' (aka {rm})
# Deref that with $var->[1]->{rm}
 
print $var->[1]->{rm};
#prints 'start'

    [download]

    grep
    XP matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my XP, do you?

[reply]
[d/l]
      Oh my god was it that simple? I never tried that because, looking at the structure it looks like it's a scalar that contains an array and 2 loose elements (rm and dummy). But now I've read your comments on the structure I get it. Never thought of it like that. Thanks a lot :-). My Perl skills went down bigtime since I've been programming PHP for a few months again and have had nothing to do with Perl. I could've known it, darn :-P. In any case, I thank you a lot! Problem solved and I know now how to use these things in Perl.
[reply]
Re: Accessing data in scalar with hashes and arrays
by NetWallah (Canon) on Nov 25, 2006 at 22:04 UTC
    If you are mixing Hash and array refs in the variable, you need to handle each separately: 
    use strict;
use warnings;

my $ref = [ [ { 'BERICHT' => 'test', 'IP' => '127.0.0.1', 'NAAM' => 't
+est' },
              { 'BERICHT' => 'test', 'IP' => '127.0.0.1', 'NAAM' => 'H
+tbaa' } 
            ],
            { 'rm' => 'start', 'dummy' => '' } 
          ];


foreach my $outer (@$ref) {    
    if (ref($outer) eq "HASH"){
    print "<b>$outer->{rm}</b></br>\n";
    }else{
       print "<b>". $_->{'NAAM'} . "</b><br>\n" for @$outer; 
    }
}

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    Output: 
    <b>test</b><br>
<b>Htbaa</b><br>
<b>start</b></br>

    [download]
    Oops - looks like grep++ beat me to showing you how.

         "A closed mouth gathers no feet." --Unknown

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      Thanks anyway :-). The first array is passed to a HTML::Template object and the hash is used for extra information that's not being used by HTML::Template.
[reply]

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