in reply to Symbolic references

> so is there a better way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

  DB<100> $path='var1/var2/var3'             # input
 => "var1/var2/var3"

  DB<102> @path=split /\//,$path             # extract path
 => ("var1", "var2", "var3")

  DB<103> $hash_ref->{var1}{var2}{var3}=42   # init nested test-hash 
 => 42

  DB<104> $node=$hash_ref                    # set start
 => { var1 => { var2 => { var3 => 42 } } }

  DB<105> $node=$node->{$_} for @path        # walk down path
 => ""

  DB<106> $node                              # check result
 => 42

[download]

HTH! =)

Cheers Rolf

( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Symbolic references
by Anonymous Monk on Apr 15, 2013 at 05:31 UTC

    You've partially lost me with that answer.

    What if I may have a variable number of variables.. 
    program.pl var1
program.pl var1/var2
program.pl var1/var2/var3

    [download]
    etc? Is there a programatic way to read N variables into the reference?
[reply]
[d/l]
      I've changed my code to be less terse and hopefully better understandable step by step.

      > What if I may have a variable number of variables..

      you can put a unlimited anount of elements into '$path' and it will work as long as the intermediate values really exist within the nested hashes (otherwise the result is undef).

      > Is there a programatic way to read N variables into the reference?

      ??? what do you mean here with "reference"?

      Cheers Rolf

      ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

[reply]
[d/l]
        I used the wrong word 'reference' it should have been variable. I've tried to impliment your code below, but I'm still lost... 
        foreach $argnum (0..$#ARGV){
  print "$ARGV[$argnum]\n";              
  my $path=$ARGV[$argnum];
  @path=split /\//,$path;
  $node=node->{$_} for @path;
  print $node;
  }
print "\n";
}

        [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom