on 3/17/02 11:02 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] purportedly said:
> but i dont see how you can use a hash in this case . the
> variable name could be many different names as it is
> concatenated dynamically.
>
> would you happen to have an example of this?
David Iberri gave a concrete example according to the code sample you
provided. In essence, assuming you use the hash %var to store your data,
where you would use "$$var_name" you would instead use: $var{$var_name}.
You can think of it as creating your own symbol table in a hash. Using a
hash also gives you the flexibility of a higher abstraction level. Say you
want to check the existence of a variable. Normally, you can only check for
a defined value, but if undef is a valid value for your var, you have no way
of knowing. Using exists( $hash{key} ) you can tell whether the "variable"
exists.
It also gives you more control over memory management, as you can:
map( delete $var{"{$_}_append"}, keys %var )
To delete a set of "variables". Of course, you may need to pay a little more
attention to scope, if you use this technique for dynamically generated
variables within a limited scope.
Also look up the tie() functions for unlimited possibilities!
Keary Suska
Esoteritech, Inc.
"Leveraging Open Source for a better Internet"
