Using iteration for populating the hash is fairly simple, but recursion is tidy for dumping the structure:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my %hash;

while (<DATA>) {
    my $parent = \%hash;

    chomp;
    for my $str (split ',') {
        $parent = $parent->{$str} ||= {};
        $parent->{count}++
    }
}

dumpHash (\%hash, '');


sub dumpHash {
    my ($hash, $indent) = @_;
    
    for my $child (sort keys %$hash) {
        next if $child eq 'count';
        print "$indent$child $hash->{$child}{count}\n";
        dumpHash ($hash->{$child}, "$indent   ");
    }
}

__DATA__
string1,string2,string3,string4
string3,string4
string1,string2,string3
string1,string3,string5
[download]

Prints:

string1 3
   string2 2
      string3 2
         string4 1
   string3 1
      string5 1
string3 1
   string4 1
[download]

Note that you need to keep a count and a hash (ref) of any child nodes for each parent node. Incrementing a hashref will not lead to a happy life!

Thank you all, great solutions!

I've implemented 'GrandFather's' method, since this was working straight away and seemed the be the most easy method.

Many thanks! Boetsie

Boetsie:

For a trivial solution, you can use recursion: Your degenerate/simple cases is when you have a single string and a hash reference--you can simply:

If you have more than one string, though, you can instead get the hash referenced by the first string, and then call the function recursively with the new hash reference and the array of strings less the first one.

So you could end up with (untested):

my %hash;
my @tests = (
    [ 'string1', 'string2', 'string3', 'string4' ],
    [ 'string3', 'string4'  ],
    [ 'string1', 'string2', 'string3' ],
);
for my $t (@tests) {
   my $hr = \%hash;
   my @strings = @$t;
   increment($hr, @strings);
}

sub increment {
    my ($hr, @strings) = @_;
    if (@strings == 1) {
        # simple case
        ++$$hr{$strings[0]};
    }
    else {
        # Peel the first string from the list
        my $first_string = shift @strings;
        # Get the associated hash reference
        $hr = $$hr{$first_string};
        # Call ourself...
        increment($hr, @strings);
    }
}
[download]

Of course, there are a few hairy areas in there. What do you do if your first list of strings is 'bar', 'foo' and then your next list is 'bar', 'foo', 'baz'? After the first list, the second level of the hash contains your incremented value instead of a hash reference. How will you handle that? That's just one of the subtleties you'll have to deal with. (On reviewing the test cases you provided, you actually get that sort of situation! Hint: perldoc -f ref.)

Have fun!

...roboticus

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

You can use Data::Diver for this.

Hello,

Be careful with your code:

1. %hash{'string1'}{'string2'}{'string3'}{'string4'}++;
2. %hash{'string3'}{'string4'}++;
3. %hash{'string1'}{'string2'}{'string3'}++;
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In 1 you are defining {'string1'}{'string2'}{'string3'} with a hash, and in 3 you want to add 1 to that hash ... which is not that you want

Use a final string like "n" or "count", like GrandFather propose:

1. $hash{'string1'}{'string2'}{'string3'}{'string4'}{n}++;
2. $hash{'string3'}{'string4'}{n}++;
3. $hash{'string1'}{'string2'}{'string3'}{n}++;
[download]

You could treat it as string, transform to final version and do eval:

#!perl -l

@strings = <DATA>;

for(@strings)
{
    chomp;
    s/,/'}{'/g;
    s/^/\$hash{'/;
    s/$/'}++/;
    print "eval $_";
    eval $_;
}

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper \%hash;

__DATA__
string1,string2,string3,string4
string3,string4
string1,string2,string3
[download]

c:\>test.pl
eval $hash{'string1'}{'string2'}{'string3'}{'string4'}++
eval $hash{'string3'}{'string4'}++
eval $hash{'string1'}{'string2'}{'string3'}++
$VAR1 = {
          'string3' => {
                         'string4' => 1
                       },
          'string1' => {
                         'string2' => {
                                        'string3' => 5393161
                                      }
                       }
        };
[download]