hash of hash - incorrect values?

NathanE has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hey all, once again;

I'm using a hash of a hash of a hash to store some numeric information, and using the actual hash key as a value to be retrieved to be associated with that numeric value for print out. It all representing a score that allows my program to include or exclude that key value to be/or not to be printed out.

When my program decides to save the key and change increment the number, another value is also incremented added to a different hash of a hash within the same base hash a la;

$Stats{$DestPort}++;
$Stats{$DestPort}{covert}{"$intSrcFound|$hshIPtoDomainIndex{$strDst}|$
+DstIP|$SrcIP|$DestPort|$Protocol"}++;
[download]

But, when I try to retrieve the values, I end up with keys that contain a different $DestPort than the $DestPort I have specified for $Stats{$DestPort}.

So, my program obtains a list @TopPorts, and I iterate through this list, during which time I sort the hash by it's keys and do the following:

foreach $entry (sort keys %{ $Stats{$TopPorts[$a]}{covert} }) {
    # my code to print out various HTML
        # elements is typically here
}
[download]

Which is where I run into the aforementioned problem of $entry containing an element that should corrospond to $TopPort$a being completely off. Is there an issue with hashes of hashes contaminating each other, or is there some small property I'm unaware of here?

Thanks for everyone's help!

Update <FIXED>: Error occured due to reference conflict with integer/string. Thanks everyone.

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Re: hash of hash - incorrect values? by friedo (Prior) on Aug 03, 2005 at 19:30 UTC
`$Stats{$DestPort}++; $Stats{$DestPort}{covert}{$intSrcFound\| $hshIPtoDomainIndex{$strDst}\|$ +DstIP\|$SrcIP\|$DestPort\|$Protocol"}++;` [download] This doesn't make much sense. `$Stats{$DestPort}` can only be one thing at a time. In the first line you are incrementing a presumably numeric value, in the next line you are assigning a reference to a deep nested structure.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: hash of hash - incorrect values? by NathanE (Beadle) on Aug 03, 2005 at 19:33 UTC
I guess that's part of my question. Can a lower level of a hash contain a value and also be linked to other levels of hashes? I thought they could, but maybe not? If they can't, than I don't understand how I am obtaining values at all, both for the incremented integer and also for the key and the related value in the deeply nested structure. comments?	[reply]
Re^3: hash of hash - incorrect values? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Aug 03, 2005 at 19:40 UTC
You misunderstand `$hash{a}{b}`. Hashes only have one level. `$hash{a}{b}` is a hash of a hash. `$hash{a}{b}` is a shortcut for `${$hash{a}}{b}`. That means "the value at key 'b' in the hash referenced by `$hash{a}`." `$hash{a}` can't contain both a hash reference and a number, so `$hash{a}++` and `$hash{a}{b}` conflict. There is an easy solution. Replace `$Stats{$DestPort}++; $Stats{$DestPort}{covert}{"..."}++;` [download] with `$Stats{$DestPort}{total}++; $Stats{$DestPort}{covert}{"..."}++;` [download] or `$Stats{$DestPort}{total}++; $Stats{$DestPort}{item}{covert}{"..."}++;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: hash of hash - incorrect values? by VSarkiss (Monsignor) on Aug 03, 2005 at 19:42 UTC
Time to (re-)read perlref and perllol. Your `$Stats{$Destport}` is a hash value -- a scalar. That scalar can be a number, a string, or any other thing a scalar can hold, including a reference to another hash. Think carefully about what you want to keep in your data structure. Possibly you need another key: `$Stats{$Destport}{count}++;`I can't tell if that's the right thing to do, since I'm not sure what the increment is doing. Do not rebuke them with harsh words ... but rather lead them gently - with URLs - so that they may learn wisdom.	[reply] [d/l] [select]