in reply to Perl style... help me figure this out.

The direly needed improvements:

One of many ways: 

my %items = map { $_ => 1 } (
    'APPLES',
    'SILVER',
);

my %groups = (
    'cookies'         => ['CHOCOLATE CHIP', 'PEANUT BUTTER'],
    'previous metals' => ['SILVER', 'GOLD', 'PLATINUM'],
);

my $lover;
for my $group_name (keys(%groups)) {
    if ( grep $items{$_}, @{ $groups{$group_name} } ) {
        print "This guy loves $group_name.\n";
        ++$lover;
    }
}

if (!$lover) {
    print "This guy loves nothing.\n";
}

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Re^2: Perl style... help me figure this out.
by jaydstein (Novice) on Feb 07, 2012 at 17:31 UTC
    Agreed upon the direly needed improvements. This is definitely a step in the right direction, but it strays slightly from the technical requirements which I failed to communicate. -Ordering is important. Does this indicate that I should be using an AoA? -I would like to preserve the key-value relationship if at all possible.
[reply]
      Yeah, you can use an array instead of a hash. 
      my %items = map { $_ => 1 } (
    'APPLES',
    'SILVER',
);

my @groups = (
    [ 'cookies',         [ 'CHOCOLATE CHIP', 'PEANUT BUTTER' ] ],
    [ 'previous metals', [ 'SILVER', 'GOLD', 'PLATINUM' ]      ],
);

my $lover;
for my $group (@groups) {
    my ($group_name, $group_members) = @$group;
    if ( grep $items{$_}, @$group_members ) {
        print "This guy loves $group_name.\n";
        ++$lover;
    }
}

if (!$lover) {
    print "This guy loves nothing.\n";
}

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[reply]
[d/l]
      EDIT: I should have made it clear that ordering is important and that 'this guy' is a simple man and can only love one thing. I know that this hints that I should be using an array of arrays instead of a hash of arrays, but the key-value relationship is something I would like to preserve if at all possible.

      After reading your EDIT, I am confused as to what the requirements really are. What does "ordering is important" mean? Order of "what" exactly?

      A hash has no intrinsic "order" to the keys - you should assume that hash keys will come out in any order when you access a hash via (keys %hash) or (keys %$ref_2_hash).

      It would help at least me, if you could back up a bit.. Write some more text describing what data you have and the kind of "look-up" that you desire. It could be that excellent solutions are being offered to the "wrong problem".

[reply]

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