XML Parsing Issue

[youthman]

I have an XML File that looks (in part - this section is several levels down) like:
'Size' => 'Single',
'ProductGroup' => 'Products',
'Feature' => [
'Blah Blah Blah',
'Blah Blah Blah',
'Blah Blah Blah',
'Blah Blah Blah',
],

etc.

When I parse the file that is received, I can gain access to Size, and Product group with this code using XML Parser:

my $size = $xml->{Items}->{Item}->{ItemAttributes}->{Size};
my $group = $xml->{Items}->{Item}->{ItemAttributes}->{ProductGroup};

The problem I am experiencing is that when I pull the Features using the same technique, I get an array back. I have tried to parse this array with a SPLIT command:

my @feat = $xml->{Items}->{Item}->{ItemAttributes}->{Feature};
($feats1,$feats2,$feats3,$feats4,$feats5) = split (/,/, @feat);

I cannot seem to do anything with the data that I receive, and when I turn the @feat into a standard $feat = $xml->{Items}-> ... and try to print the result, all I get is ARRAY{...}

I know that this has to be simple, and I am just overlooking it, but can anyone else help with this?


Thanks

 

[feherke]

Hi

Supposing I reconstructed correctly your data structure ( next time please post a functional piece of code we can use to test your problem ) :

[b]my[/b] [navy]$xml[/navy] [teal]=[/teal] [teal]{[/teal]
  [green][i]'Items'[/i][/green] [teal]=>[/teal] [teal]{[/teal]
    [green][i]'Item'[/i][/green] [teal]=>[/teal] [teal]{[/teal]
      [green][i]'ItemAttributes'[/i][/green] [teal]=>[/teal] [teal]{[/teal]
        [green][i]'Size'[/i][/green] [teal]=>[/teal] [green][i]'Single'[/i][/green][teal],[/teal]
        [green][i]'ProductGroup'[/i][/green] [teal]=>[/teal] [green][i]'Products'[/i][/green][teal],[/teal]
        [green][i]'Feature'[/i][/green] [teal]=>[/teal] [teal][[/teal]
          [green][i]'Blah One Blah'[/i][/green][teal],[/teal]
          [green][i]'Blah Two Blah'[/i][/green][teal],[/teal]
          [green][i]'Blah Three Blah'[/i][/green][teal],[/teal]
          [green][i]'Blah Four Blah'[/i][/green][teal],[/teal]
        [teal]][/teal]
      [teal]}[/teal]
    [teal]}[/teal]
  [teal]}[/teal]
[teal]}[/teal][teal];[/teal]

[b]my[/b] [navy]$size[/navy] [teal]=[/teal] [navy]$xml[/navy][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Items[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Item[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]ItemAttributes[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Size[teal]}[/teal][teal];[/teal]
[b]my[/b] [navy]$group[/navy] [teal]=[/teal] [navy]$xml[/navy][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Items[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Item[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]ItemAttributes[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]ProductGroup[teal]}[/teal][teal];[/teal]
[b]my[/b] [navy]@feat[/navy] [teal]=[/teal] @[teal]{[/teal][navy]$xml[/navy][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Items[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Item[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]ItemAttributes[teal]}[/teal][teal]->[/teal][teal]{[/teal]Feature[teal]}}[/teal][teal];[/teal]
[teal]([/teal][navy]$feats1[/navy][teal],[/teal][navy]$feats2[/navy][teal],[/teal][navy]$feats3[/navy][teal],[/teal][navy]$feats4[/navy][teal],[/teal][navy]$feats5[/navy][teal])[/teal] [teal]=[/teal] [navy]@feat[/navy][teal];[/teal]

[b]print[/b] [green][i]"Size\t$size\n"[/i][/green][teal];[/teal]
[b]print[/b] [green][i]"Group\t$group\n"[/i][/green][teal];[/teal]
[b]print[/b] [green][i]"Feat[1]\t$feat[1]\n"[/i][/green][teal];[/teal]
[b]print[/b] [green][i]"Feats 3\t$feats3\n"[/i][/green][teal];[/teal]

Size	Single
Group	Products
Feat[1]	Blah Two Blah
Feats 3	Blah Three Blah

Feherke.
feherke.github.io

 

[prex1]

The same, just a little more efficient:

my $feat = $xml->{Items}->{Item}->{ItemAttributes}->{Feature};
($feats1,$feats2,$feats3,$feats4,$feats5) = @$feat;

print "Feat[1]\t$$feat[1]\n";
print "Feats 3\t$feats3\n";

http://www.xcalcs.com

: Online engineering calculations

http://www.megamag.it

: Magnetic brakes for fun rides

http://www.levitans.com

: Air bearing pads

 

[youthman]

All of this works great, until I get to one that has Feature Atributes ... Sometimes, the data looks like this:
my $xml = {
'Items' => {
'Item' => {
'ItemAttributes' => {
'Size' => 'Single',
'ProductGroup' => 'Products',
'Feature' => [
{
'Content' => 'Blah One Blah',
'Blah Two Blah',
'Source => 'Blah Three Blah',
'Link' => 'Blah Four Blah',
}
{
'Content' => 'Blah One Blah',
'Blah Two Blah',
'Source => 'Blah Three Blah',
'Link' => 'Blah Four Blah',
}
}
}
}
};

When I hit one of these sections, I get an error that states "Bad index while coercing array into hash" I have tried everything I can think of to make this work, but the structure is not always the same.

 

[prex1]

You need to understand how references work in perl.
[tt]my $feat = $xml->{Items}->{Item}->{ItemAttributes}->{Feature};[/tt]
returns a reference to an array, as is seen from the brackets in your data structure.
Now [tt]@$feat[/tt] returns the content of that array in list context, and the number of elements in scalar context and [tt]$$feat[$i][/tt] returns the element [tt]$i[/tt].
But the array [tt]@$feat[/tt] contains in turn references to hashes, as is seen from the curls enclosing them.
So [tt]keys%$$feat[0][/tt] returns the key list of the first hash and [tt]$$$feat[0]{Content}[/tt] returns the [tt]'Content'[/tt] of the first hash.
Sorry, I'm not accustomed to the [tt]$xml->{Items}[/tt] way of dereferencing, I would've written the first line as
[tt]my $feat = $$xml{Items}{Item}{ItemAttributes}{Feature};[/tt]

http://www.xcalcs.com

: Online engineering calculations

http://www.megamag.it

: Magnetic brakes for fun rides

http://www.levitans.com

: Air bearing pads