Data Structure Problem

[rotis23]

Hi All,

Wonder if you can help me because I'm getting bogged down with this.

I have an application written in Perl that includes several modules and they all reference a Constants.pm module for obvious reasons.

Now, I have some constants that are more complex than just a number and I've been trying to use them as hashes like:

use constant RESULT_STRUCTURE => {
        VALUE           => 10,
        MORE_DATA       => "Human readable data.",
};

This is so that I don't use multiple arrays that reference each other.

The problem is that I need to assign this data structure to an object attribute so I don't have to keep referencing arrays or the constants.

So, a couple of questions:

- should I be using a complex constant like this? Is there a better way? It seems too complex.

- I assume I need to pass a reference to the structure to the object attirbute. I haven't figured out how to reference a reference to a constant hash yet??!! Any ideas?

Does this make sense?

Thanks for any help,

rotis23

 

[rotis23]

What I really need to do is to grab a value from the data structure based on another value. e.g.:

Get MORE_DATA from the data structure where VALUE = 10.

I know I can do this using an array and it's index, but the values aren't sequential from 0.

I guess the other alternative is to search through the collection looking at each key? Seems a big job just to get some simple relational data.

rotis23

 

[MikeLacey]

Hello rotis,

If I understand your needs correctly it sounds as if you need to use a hash, an associative array, which are just like an ordinary arrays except that they are indexed by strings - like this:

$hDescriptions{'PaulTeg'} = 'Perl God";
$hDescriptions{'MikeLacey'} = 'Devilishly good looking";
$hDescriptions{'mikevh'} = 'Way too clever";

This also works:

$hYourData{10} = 'some string you want to store';
$hYourData{26} = 59.942;


Mike

To err is human,
but to really foul things up -
you require a man Mike.

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