in reply to Data Structures

$Easting{$Line}{$Station}

That implies you intend to have 3 hashes, one for each of x, y & z. Parallel data structures are not (generally) a good idea as they can get out of sync and you're stuffed. Going by the line diagram, you'd be better off with something that allowed you to do: 

my %line = (
    lineNameA => { 
        StationA => [ xxx.xx, yyy.yy, zzz.zz ],
        StationB => [ xxx.xx, yyy.yy, zzz.zz ],
        ...
    },
    lineNameB => { 
        ...        
);

my( $x, $y, $z ) = $line{ $lineName }{ $stationName };

# Or
use constant{ X => 0, Y => 1, Z => 2 };

my $y = $line[ $lineNo ][ $staionNo ][ Y ];

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That's assuming the the identifiers are names not numbers.

If they are numbers, or names of the form "line_003" and "station_12", (low, mostly sequential number postfixes ),

then you'd save some memory and be a tad quicker to use arrays instead of hashes: 

my @line = (
    [  ## $line[ 0 ]
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ], ## $line[0][0] (station 0)
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ], ## (station 1)
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ],
        ...
    ],
    [   ## Line[ 1 ]
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ], ## Line[ 1 ][ 0 ]
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ],
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ],
        ...
    ],
    ...
);

my( $x, $y, $z ) = $line[ $lineNo ][ $stationNo ];

# Or
use constant{ X => 0, Y => 1, Z => 2 };

my $y = $line[ $lineNo ][ $staionNo ][ Y ];

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Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

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Re^2: Data Structures
by alexm (Chaplain) on May 02, 2008 at 10:51 UTC
    my( $x, $y, $z ) = $line{ $lineName }{ $stationName };
    my( $x, $y, $z ) = @{ $line{ $lineName }{ $stationName } };
    my( $x, $y, $z ) = $line[ $lineNo ][ $stationNo ];
    my( $x, $y, $z ) = @{ $line[ $lineNo ][ $stationNo ] };
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Re^2: Data Structures
by YYCseismic (Beadle) on May 02, 2008 at 15:55 UTC

    As I'm rather new to this kind of thing, I didn't realize that parallel data structures might not be a good idea. What you say makes sense, though.

    I think I'm more inclined to go with your second option: 

    my @line = (
    [  ## $line[ 0 ]
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ], ## $line[0][0] (station 0)
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ], ## (station 1)
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ],
        ...
    ],
    [   ## Line[ 1 ]
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ], ## Line[ 1 ][ 0 ]
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ],
        [ xxx.xxx, yyy.yyy, zzz.zzz ],
        ...
    ],
    ...
);

my( $x, $y, $z ) = $line[ $lineNo ][ $stationNo ];

    [download]
    My plan, if you can call it that, was to hold the line names (identifiers) in an array, since they may or may not start with a numeric. An annotated example of a portion of a SEG-P1 file is given below.

    lineName        stn.                     east...north...elev.
000301038       1260 52205121N109153806W 618485158009020 6626
000301038       1261 52205121N109153674W 618510158009027 6623
000301038       1262 52205120N109153542W 618535158009029 6621
000301016        400 52153542N109482654W 581401057903909 6738
000301016        401 52153542N109482522W 581426057903913 6738
000301016        402 52153542N109482390W 581451057903918 6738

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    The stn, east, north, and elev indicate the columns in which those values (station number, easting, northing, and elevation) are found throughout the file. (Note the change in line number/identifier part way through.) Station identifiers are always numeric, and, while they are arbitrarily assigned, I would like for any access to be according to these numbers. For example, 

    my( $x, $y, $z ) = $line[000301038][1261];
...
print "$x, $y, $z";    # Result: 6185101, 58009027, 6623

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    One reason I thought about using hashes here is because they are essentially associative arrays, so I can have a hash with the line name as the key, instead of some arbitrary number as the key. So instead of accessing according to $line[0][0] for the first station of the first line, I would prefer to say something like $line{32A-5}[101] for the first station of line 32A-5. This way there is no "first" or "last" line, only first and last stations (which makes sense, seeing as the survey is generally linear).

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      The only problem with using array rather than hashes, is that if, for example, all your line identifiers start with '0030nnnn', then using an array, you would have space allocated to 300,000 elements 00000000 .. 000299999 which would never be used, but would take up space. (This is what I meant above by "if your numbers are low and mostly sequential".).

      In this case, you would be much better off using hashes as a "sparse array". The same is true for your station numbers. With just three stations number 1250..1252 on the line 000301038, using hashes will definitely save you much memory.

      Note also that I made an error (pointed out by alexm in the post following mine) when I typed: 

      my( $x, $y, $z ) = $line[000301038][1261];

      [download]

      It should be 

      my( $x, $y, $z ) = @{ $line[000301038][1261] };

      [download]

      Or, if you go with hashes as I think you probably should having seen the real data: 

      my( $x, $y, $z ) = @{ $line{ 000301038 }{ 1261 } };

## and 
## Assumes use constant { X=>0, Y=1, Z=>2 }

my $thisX = $line{ $line }{ $stn }[ X ];

      [download]
      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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        Okay, so that's one good argument in support of using hashes. What about the argument for using object oriented code, as suggested by leocharre? This would likely still use hashes, of course, but they would be hidden by the OO code.

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        I'm not sure I understand the difference with your correction. Why is it supposed to be 
        my( $x, $y, $z ) = @{ $line[000301038][1261] };

        [download]
        rather than without the @{...} around the $line[...][...]?
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      Given your example, what you want is a hash of arrays of hashes: 
      my %data;

push @{$data{$linename}}, { station => $station, coords => $coords, ea
+sting => $easting, northing => $northing, elevation => $elevation };

      [download]
      for my $linename ( keys %data ){
  for my $entry ( @{$data{$linename}} ){
    print "$linename: @{$entry}{qw(station easting northing elevation)
+};
  }
}

      [download]
      At least, that's what it looks like from your example, but you really haven't given enough information about the structure of those fields.
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