fwbennett:

The error message tells you that you've got an array and you're trying to use it as a hash. Try using Data::Dumper to print the data structure you have and that'll make it easier to see where your problem is, and how to access the data.

Also, I don't know what library you're using to parse the XML, but you may need to review the documentation and configure it to return what you want/expect if needed.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

The thing is that there are (at least sometimes) several <asset>s in each <account> so the $account->{asset} is an array ref. The problem with XML::Simple is that it's not always an arrayref.

You may use this instead:

use strict;
use XML::Rules;

sub do_something_with {
    print join(', ', @_), "\n";
}

my $parser = XML::Rules->new(
    rules => {
        _default => 'content',
        asset => 'as array no content',
        account => sub {
            my ($tag, $attr) = @_;
            foreach my $asset (@{$attr->{asset}}) {
                do_something_with($attr->{accountId}, $attr->{accountN
+ame}, $asset->{assetId}, $asset->{assetName});
            }            
        },
    }
);

$parser->parse(\*DATA);

__DATA__
<data>
<account>
    <accountId>001</accountId>
    <accountName>Account 001</accountName>
    <asset>    
        <assetId>abcd</assetId>
        <assetName>Asset abcd</assetName>
    </asset>
 ...
[download]

Or if you'd prefer a data structure containing all the data:

use strict;
use XML::Rules;

my $parser = XML::Rules->new(
    rules => {
        _default => 'content',
        'asset,account' => 'as array no content',
        'data' => 'pass no content'
    }
);

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper($parser->parse(\*DATA));
[download]

Or if you'd prefer a data structure containing all the data...

Or even this might be preferable (using 'id' fields as hash keys):

my $parser = XML::Rules->new(
    rules => {
        _default  => 'content',
        'asset'   => 'no content by assetId',
        'account' => 'no content by accountId',
        'data'    => 'pass no content'
    }
);
[download]

Update: Although looking at the OP, if there are really repeated accountId's, then maybe not...but I'm thinking that might be just due to cut n paste.

Hello all, This is Fantastic! However, there is one minor issue. With the sample xml above, if I return just one 'account', I get the error: "Bad index while coercing array into hash..." Jenda was correct - it is not always an array ref, and what you have above, handles 1 level - at the "asset" or 'sub' level. Would I set up a 'Rules' sub-routine inside of a 'Rules' sub-routine? Would that even work? Thank you again, -Fred

Depends on how do you "return just one account". Show me the exact code that gives you the error.

Jenda
Enoch was right!
Enjoy the last years of Rome.

use Data::Dumper;
use strict;

my ($xml, $account, $asset, @record);

$xml = parseXML(join '', <DATA>);
print Dumper($xml);

for $account (@{$xml->{'account'}}) {
    $account->{'asset'} = [$account->{'asset'}]
        if !ref $account->{'asset'};
    for $asset (@{$account->{'asset'}}) {
        @record = ($account->{'accountId'}, $account->{'accountName'},
+ $asset->{'assetId'}, $asset->{'assetName'});
        print "@record\n";
    }
}

sub parseXML {
    my $xml = $_[0];
    my (%xml, $key, $val);

    while ($xml =~ m|<(.*?)>(.*?)</\1>|sg) {
        ($key, $val) = ($1, $2);
        if (!defined $xml{$key}) {
            $xml{$key} = parseXML($val);
            next;
        }
        $xml{$key} = [$xml{$key}] if ref $xml{$key} ne 'ARRAY';
        push @{$xml{$key}}, parseXML($val);
    }
    return scalar keys %xml == 0 ? $xml : \%xml;
}

__DATA__
<xml version, encoding & SOAP Envelope header stuff...>
<account>
    <accountId>001</accountId>
    <accountName>Account 001</accountName>
    <asset>    
        <assetId>abcd</assetId>
        <assetName>Asset abcd</assetName>
    </asset>
    <asset>
        <assetId>wxyz</assetId>
        <assetName>Asset wxyz</assetName>
    </asset>
</account>
<account>
    <accountId>002</accountId>
    <accountName>Account 002</accountName>
</account>
</SOAP Envelope stuff...>
[download]