Perl Hash Value - perl

Im trying to print perl hash value but its printing the ARRAY().
foreach my $key (sort keys %myHash) {
my $val = $myHash{$key};
print "$key => $val\n";
}
The Output is printing like
172 ARRAY(0x1c42548)
199 ARRAY(0x1c42638)
209 ARRAY(0x1c63360)
299 ARRAY(0x1c63390)
325 ARRAY(0x1c634e0)

Your values in your hash are themselves scalars pointing to arrays. Consider using Data::Dumper to print the value or if the elements of the arrays are scalars you can try something like the following.
The two builtin Perl collections, hashes and arrays, do not nest directly. They contain scalars which may be strings/numbers or references to hashes or arrays. There can also be references to functions and other more exotic things.
# Extract the array as an array and interpolate.
foreach my $key (sort keys %myHash) {
my #val = #{ $myHash{$key} };
print "$key => #val\n";
}
Data::Dumper exposes an option to sort keys.
# sample program using Data::Dumper
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
local $Data::Dumper::Sortkeys = 1;
# obj is a reference to a hash.
my $obj = { 1 => 2, 3 => 4};
print Dumper($obj);
which prints
$VAR1 = {
'1' => 2,
'3' => 4
};

Related

Accessing a multi-dimensional hash using strings

I have a large multi-dimensional hash which is an import of a JSON structure.
my %bighash;
There is an element in %bighash called:
$bighash{'core'}{'dates'}{'year'} = 2019.
I have a separate string variable called core.dates.year which I would like to use to extract 2019 from %bighash.
I've written this code:
my #keys = split(/\./, 'core.dates.year');
my %hash = ();
my $hash_ref = \%hash;
for my $key ( #keys ){
$hash_ref->{$key} = {};
$hash_ref = $hash_ref->{$key};
}
which when I execute:
say Dumper \%hash;
outputs:
$VAR1 = {
'core' => {
'dates' => {
'year' => {}
}
}
};
All good so far. But what I now want to do is say:
print $bighash{\%hash};
Which I want to return 2019. But nothing is being returned or I'm seeing an error about "Use of uninitialized value within %bighash in concatenation (.) or string at script.pl line 1371, line 17 (#1)...
Can someone point me into what is going on?
My project involves embedding strings in an external file which is then replaced with actual values from %bighash so it's just string interpolation.
Thanks!
Can someone point me into what is going on [when I use $bighash{\%hash}]?
Hash keys are strings, and the stringification of \%hash is something like HASH(0x655178). The only element in %bighash has core —not HASH(0x655178)— for key, so the hash lookup returns undef.
Useful tools:
sub dive_val :lvalue { my $p = \shift; $p //= \( $$p->{$_} ) for #_; $$p } # For setting
sub dive { my $r = shift; $r //= $r->{$_} for #_; $r } # For getting
dive_val(\%hash, split /\./, 'core.dates.year') = 2019;
say dive(\%hash, split /\./, 'core.dates.year');
Hash::Fold would seem to be helpful here. You can "flatten" your hash and then access everything with a single key.
use Hash::Fold 'flatten';
my $flathash = flatten(\%bighash, delimiter => '.');
print $flathash->{"core.dates.year"};
There are no multi-dimensional hashes in Perl. Hashes are key/value pairs. Your understanding of Perl data structures is incomplete.
Re-imagine your data structure as follows
my %bighash = (
core => {
dates => {
year => 2019,
},
},
);
There is a difference between the round parentheses () and the curly braces {}. The % sigil on the variable name indicates that it's a hash, that is a set of unordered key/value pairs. The round () are a list. Inside that list are two scalar values, i.e. a key and a value. The value is a reference to another, anonymous, hash. That's why it has curly {}.
Each of those levels is a separate, distinct data structure.
This rewrite of your code is similar to what ikegami wrote in his answer, but less efficient and more verbose.
my #keys = split( /\./, 'core.dates.year' );
my $value = \%bighash;
for my $key (#keys) {
$value //= $value->{$key};
}
print $value;
It drills down step by step into the structure and eventually gives you the final value.

Printing Hash in Perl

I want to know the following code why print "2/8".
#!/usr/bin/perl
#use strict;
#use warnings;
%a = ('a'=>'dfsd','b'=>'fdsfds');
print %a."\n";
You are printing a hash in scalar context by concatenating it with a string '\n'
If you evaluate a hash in scalar context, it returns false if the hash
is empty. If there are any key/value pairs, it returns true; more
precisely, the value returned is a string consisting of the number of
used buckets and the number of allocated buckets, separated by a
slash.
2/8 means that of the 8 buckets allocated, 2 have been touched. Considering that you've inserted only 2 values, it is doing well so far :)
The value is obviously of no use, except to evaluate how well the hash-function is doing. Use print %a; to print its contents.
As mentioned by #Dark.. you are printing a hash in scalar context.
if you really want to print a hash, then use Data::Dumper
use Data::Dumper;
...
...
print Dumper(%a);
for eg:
use Data::Dumper;
my %hash = ( key1 => 'value1', key2 => 'value2' );
print Dumper(%hash); # okay, but not great
print "or\n";
print Dumper(\%hash); # much better
And the output:
$VAR1 = 'key2';
$VAR2 = 'value2';
$VAR3 = 'key1';
$VAR4 = 'value1';
or
$VAR1 = {
'key2' => 'value2',
'key1' => 'value1'
};

Traversing Array of Hashes in perl

I have a structure as below:
my $var1 = [{a=>"B", c=>"D"}, {E=>"F", G=>"H"}];
Now I want to traverse the first hash and the elements in it.. How can I do it?
When I do a dumper of $var1 it gives me Array and when on #var1 it says a hash.
You iterate over the array as you would with any other array, and you'll get hash references. Then iterate over the keys of each hash as you would with a plain hash reference.
Something like:
foreach my $hash (#{$var1}) {
foreach my $key (keys %{$hash}) {
print $key, " -> ", $hash->{$key}, "\n";
}
}
First off, you're going to trip Perl's strict mode with your variable declaration that includes barewords.
With that in mind, complete annotated example given below.
use strict;
my $test = [{'a'=>'B','c'=>'D'},{'E'=>'F','G'=>'H'}];
# Note the #{ $test }
# This says "treat this scalar reference as a list".
foreach my $elem ( #{ $test } ){
# At this point $elem is a scalar reference to one of the anonymous
# hashes
#
# Same trick, except this time, we're asking Perl
# to treat the $elem reference as a reference to hash
#
# Hence, we can just call keys on it and iterate
foreach my $key ( keys %{ $elem } ){
# Finally, another bit of useful syntax for scalar references
# The "point to" syntax automatically does the %{ } around $elem
print "Key -> $key = Value " . $elem->{$key} . "\n";
}
}
C:\wamp\bin\perl\bin\PERL_2~1\BASIC_~1\REVISION>type traverse.pl
my $var1=[{a=>"B", c=>"D"},{E=>"F", G=>"H"}];
foreach my $var (#{$var1}) {
foreach my $key (keys(%$var)) {
print $key, "=>", $var->{$key}, "\n";
}
print "\n";
}
C:\wamp\bin\perl\bin\PERL_2~1\BASIC_~1\REVISION>traverse.pl
c=>D
a=>B
G=>H
E=>F
$var1 = [] is a reference to an anonymous array
using the # sigil before it as in $var1 gives you the access to the array it is referencing. So analogous to foreach (#arr) {...} you would do foreach (#{$var1}) {...}.
Now, the elements in the array that you have provided #{$var1} are anonymous (means not named) too, but they are anonymous hashes, so just like with the arrayref, here we do %{$hash_reference} to get access to the hash referenced by $hash_reference. Here, $hash_reference is $var.
After accessing the hash using %{$var} it becomes easy to access the keys of the hash using keys(%$var) or keys(%{$var}). Since the result returned is an array of keys therefore we can use keys(%{$var}) inside foreach (keys(%{$var})) {...}.
We access the scalar value inside an anonymous hash by using a key like $hash_reference->{$keyname}, that's all the code did.
In case your array contained anonymous hashes of arrays like :
$var1=[ { akey=>["b", "c"], mkey=>["n", "o"]} ];
then, this is how you will access the array values:
C:\wamp\bin\perl\bin\PERL_2012\BASIC_PERL\REVISION>type traverse.pl
my $var1=[ {akey=>["b", "c"], mkey=>["n", "o"]} ];
foreach my $var (#{$var1}) {
foreach my $key (keys(%$var)) {
foreach my $elem (#{ $var->{$key} }) {
print "$key=>$elem,";
}
print "\n...\n";
}
print "\n";
}
C:\wamp\bin\perl\bin\PERL_2012\BASIC_PERL\REVISION>traverse.pl
mkey=>n,mkey=>o,
...
akey=>b,akey=>c,
...
Practice it more and regularly, it will soon become easy for you to break complex structures into such combinations. This is how I created a large parser for another software, it is full of answers to your questions :)
With one peek at amon's up-voted comment above (thanks, amon!) I was able to write this little ditty:
#!/usr/bin/perl
# Given an array of hashes, print out the keys and values of each hash.
use strict; use warnings;
use Data::Dump qw(dump);
my $var1=[{A=>"B",C=>"D"},{E=>"F",G=>"H"}];
my $count = 0;
# #{$var1} is the array of hash references pointed to by $var1
foreach my $href (#{$var1})
{
print "\nArray index ", $count++, "\n";
print "=============\n";
# %{$href} is the hash pointed to by $href
foreach my $key (keys %{$href})
{
# $href->{$key} ( ALT: $$href{$key} ) is the value
# corresponding to $key in the hash pointed to by
# $href
# print $key, " => ", $href->{$key}, "\n";
print $key, " => ", $$href{$key}, "\n";
}
print "\nCompare with dump():\n";
dump ($var1);
print "\nJust the first hash (index 0):\n";
# $var1->[0] ( ALT: $$var1[0] ) is the first hash reference (index 0)
# in #{$var1}
# dump ($var1->[0]);
dump ($$var1[0]);
#print "\nJust the value of key A: \"", $var1->[0]->{A}, "\"\n";
#print "\nJust the value of key A: \"", $var1->[0]{A}, "\"\n";
print "\nJust the value of key A: \"", $$var1[0]{A}, "\"\n"

sum hash of hash values using perl

I have a Perl script that parses an Excel file and does the following : It counts for each value in column A, the number of elements it has in column B, the script looks like this :
use strict;
use warnings;
use Spreadsheet::XLSX;
use Data::Dumper;
use List::Util qw( sum );
my $col1 = 0;
my %hash;
my $excel = Spreadsheet::XLSX->new('inout_chartdata_ronald.xlsx');
my $sheet = ${ $excel->{Worksheet} }[0];
$sheet->{MaxRow} ||= $sheet->{MinRow};
my $count = 0;
# Iterate through each row
foreach my $row ( $sheet->{MinRow}+1 .. $sheet->{MaxRow} ) {
# The cell in column 1
my $cell = $sheet->{Cells}[$row][$col1];
if ($cell) {
# The adjacent cell in column 2
my $adjacentCell = $sheet->{Cells}[$row][ $col1 + 1 ];
# Use a hash of hashes
$hash{ $cell->{Val} }{ $adjacentCell->{Val} }++;
}
}
print "\n", Dumper \%hash;
The output looks like this :
$VAR1 = {
'13' => {
'klm' => 1,
'hij' => 2,
'lkm' => 4,
},
'12' => {
'abc' => 2,
'efg' => 2
}
};
This works great, my question is : How can I access the elements of this output $VAR1 in order to do : for value 13, klm + hij = 3 and get a final output like this :
$VAR1 = {
'13' => {
'somename' => 3,
'lkm' => 4,
},
'12' => {
'abc' => 2,
'efg' => 2
}
};
So basically what I want to do is loop through my final hash of hashes and access its specific elements based on a unique key and finally do their sum.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
I used #do_sum to indicate what changes you want to make. The new key is hardcoded in the script. Note that the new key is not created if no key exists in the subhash (the $found flag).
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;
my %hash = (
'13' => {
'klm' => 1,
'hij' => 2,
'lkm' => 4,
},
'12' => {
'abc' => 2,
'efg' => 2
}
);
my #do_sum = qw(klm hij);
for my $num (keys %hash) {
my $found;
my $sum = 0;
for my $key (#do_sum) {
next unless exists $hash{$num}{$key};
$sum += $hash{$num}{$key};
delete $hash{$num}{$key};
$found = 1;
}
$hash{$num}{somename} = $sum if $found;
}
print Dumper \%hash;
It sounds like you need to learn about Perl References, and maybe Perl Objects which are just a nice way to deal with references.
As you know, Perl has three basic data-structures:
Scalars ($foo)
Arrays (#foo)
Hashes (%foo)
The problem is that these data structures can only contain scalar data. That is, each element in an array can hold a single value or each key in a hash can hold a single value.
In your case %hash is a Hash where each entry in the hash references another hash. For example:
Your %hash has an entry in it with a key of 13. This doesn't contain a scalar value, but a references to another hash with three keys in it: klm, hij, and lkm. YOu can reference this via this syntax:
${ hash{13} }{klm} = 1
${ hash{13} }{hij} = 2
${ hash{13} }{lkm} = 4
The curly braces may or may not be necessary. However, %{ hash{13} } references that hash contained in $hash{13}, so I can now reference the keys of that hash. You can imagine this getting more complex as you talk about hashes of hashes of arrays of hashes of arrays. Fortunately, Perl includes an easier syntax:
$hash{13}->{klm} = 1
%hash{13}->{hij} = 2
%hash{13}->{lkm} = 4
Read up about hashes and how to manipulate them. After you get comfortable with this, you can start working on learning about Object Oriented Perl which handles references in a safer manner.

What's the best practise for Perl hashes with array values?

What is the best practise to solve this?
if (... )
{
push (#{$hash{'key'}}, #array ) ;
}
else
{
$hash{'key'} ="";
}
Is that bad practise for storing one element is array or one is just double quote in hash?
I'm not sure I understand your question, but I'll answer it literally as asked for now...
my #array = (1, 2, 3, 4);
my $arrayRef = \#array; # alternatively: my $arrayRef = [1, 2, 3, 4];
my %hash;
$hash{'key'} = $arrayRef; # or again: $hash{'key'} = [1, 2, 3, 4]; or $hash{'key'} = \#array;
The crux of the problem is that arrays or hashes take scalar values... so you need to take a reference to your array or hash and use that as the value.
See perlref and perlreftut for more information.
EDIT: Yes, you can add empty strings as values for some keys and references (to arrays or hashes, or even scalars, typeglobs/filehandles, or other scalars. Either way) for other keys. They're all still scalars.
You'll want to look at the ref function for figuring out how to disambiguate between the reference types and normal scalars.
It's probably simpler to use explicit array references:
my $arr_ref = \#array;
$hash{'key'} = $arr_ref;
Actually, doing the above and using push result in the same data structure:
my #array = qw/ one two three four five /;
my $arr_ref = \#array;
my %hash;
my %hash2;
$hash{'key'} = $arr_ref;
print Dumper \%hash;
push #{$hash2{'key'}}, #array;
print Dumper \%hash2;
This gives:
$VAR1 = {
'key' => [
'one',
'two',
'three',
'four',
'five'
]
};
$VAR1 = {
'key' => [
'one',
'two',
'three',
'four',
'five'
]
};
Using explicit array references uses fewer characters and is easier to read than the push #{$hash{'key'}}, #array construct, IMO.
Edit: For your else{} block, it's probably less than ideal to assign an empty string. It would be a lot easier to just skip the if-else construct and, later on when you're accessing values in the hash, to do a if( defined( $hash{'key'} ) ) check. That's a lot closer to standard Perl idiom, and you don't waste memory storing empty strings in your hash.
Instead, you'll have to use ref() to find out what kind of data you have in your value, and that is less clear than just doing a defined-ness check.
I'm not sure what your goal is, but there are several things to consider.
First, if you are going to store an array, do you want to store a reference to the original value or a copy of the original values? In either case, I prefer to avoid the dereferencing syntax and take references when I can:
$hash{key} = \#array; # just a reference
use Clone; # or a similar module
$hash{key} = clone( \#array );
Next, do you want to add to the values that exist already, even if it's a single value? If you are going to have array values, I'd make all the values arrays even if you have a single element. Then you don't have to decide what to do and you remove a special case:
$hash{key} = [] unless defined $hash{key};
push #{ $hash{key} }, #values;
That might be your "best practice" answer, which is often the technique that removes as many special cases and extra logic as possible. When I do this sort of thing in a module, I typically have a add_value method that encapsulates this magic where I don't have to see it or type it more than once.
If you already have a non-reference value in the hash key, that's easy to fix too:
if( defined $hash{key} and ! ref $hash{key} ) {
$hash{key} = [ $hash{key} ];
}
If you already have non-array reference values that you want to be in the array, you do something similar. Maybe you want an anonymous hash to be one of the array elements:
if( defined $hash{key} and ref $hash{key} eq ref {} ) {
$hash{key} = [ $hash{key} ];
}
Dealing with the revised notation:
if (... )
{
push (#{$hash{'key'}}, #array);
}
else
{
$hash{'key'} = "";
}
we can immediately tell that you are not following the standard advice that protects novices (and experts!) from their own mistakes. You're using a symbolic reference, which is not a good idea.
use strict;
use warnings;
my %hash = ( key => "value" );
my #array = ( 1, "abc", 2 );
my #value = ( 22, 23, 24 );
push(#{$hash{'key'}}, #array);
foreach my $key (sort keys %hash) { print "$key = $hash{$key}\n"; }
foreach my $value (#array) { print "array $value\n"; }
foreach my $value (#value) { print "value $value\n"; }
This does not run:
Can't use string ("value") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in use at xx.pl line 8.
I'm not sure I can work out what you were trying to achieve. Even if you remove the 'use strict;' warning, the code shown does not detect a change from the push operation.
use warnings;
my %hash = ( key => "value" );
my #array = ( 1, "abc", 2 );
my #value = ( 22, 23, 24 );
push #{$hash{'key'}}, #array;
foreach my $key (sort keys %hash) { print "$key = $hash{$key}\n"; }
foreach my $value (#array) { print "array $value\n"; }
foreach my $value (#value) { print "value $value\n"; }
foreach my $value (#{$hash{'key'}}) { print "h_key $value\n"; }
push #value, #array;
foreach my $key (sort keys %hash) { print "$key = $hash{$key}\n"; }
foreach my $value (#array) { print "array $value\n"; }
foreach my $value (#value) { print "value $value\n"; }
Output:
key = value
array 1
array abc
array 2
value 22
value 23
value 24
h_key 1
h_key abc
h_key 2
key = value
array 1
array abc
array 2
value 22
value 23
value 24
value 1
value abc
value 2
I'm not sure what is going on there.
If your problem is how do you replace a empty string value you had stored before with an array onto which you can push your values, this might be the best way to do it:
if ( ... ) {
my $r = \$hash{ $key }; # $hash{ $key } autoviv-ed
$$r = [] unless ref $$r;
push #$$r, #values;
}
else {
$hash{ $key } = "";
}
I avoid multiple hash look-ups by saving a copy of the auto-vivified slot.
Note the code relies on a scalar or an array being the entire universe of things stored in %hash.