Inserting one hash into another using Perl - perl

Question

I've tried many different versions of using push and splice, but can't seem to combine two hashes as needed. Trying to insert the second hash into the first inside the 'Item' array:
(
ItemData => { Item => { ItemNum => 2, PriceList => "25.00", UOM => " " } },
)
(
Alternate => {
Description => "OIL FILTER",
InFile => "Y",
MfgCode => "FRA",
QtyAvailable => 29,
Stocked => "Y",
},
)
And I need to insert the second 'Alternate' hash into the 'Item' array of the first hash for this result:
(
ItemData => {
Item => {
Alternate => {
Description => "OIL FILTER",
InFile => "Y",
MfgCode => "FRA",
QtyAvailable => 29,
Stocked => "Y",
},
ItemNum => 2,
PriceList => "25.00",
UOM => " ",
},
},
)
Can someone suggest how I can accomplish this?

Answer 1

Assuming you have two hash references, this is straight-forward.
my $item = {
'ItemData' => {
'Item' => {
'PriceList' => '25.00',
'UOM' => ' ',
'ItemNum' => '2'
}
}
};
my $alt = {
'Alternate' => {
'MfgCode' => 'FRA',
'Description' => 'OIL FILTER',
'Stocked' => 'Y',
'InFile' => 'Y',
'QtyAvailable' => '29'
}
};
$item->{ItemData}->{Item}->{Alternate} = $alt->{Alternate};
The trick here is not to actually merge $alt into some part of $item, but to only take the specific part you want and put it where you want it. We take the Alternate key from $alt and put it's content into a new Alternate key inside the guts of $item.
Adam Millerchip pointed out in a hence deleted comment that this is not a copy. If you alter any of the keys inside of $alt->{Alternative} after sticking it into $item, the data will be changed inside of $item as well because we are dealing with references.
$item->{ItemData}->{Item}->{Alternate} = $alt->{Alternate};
$alt->{Alternate}->{InFile} = 'foobar';
This will actually also change the value of $item->{ItemData}->{Item}->{Alternate}->{InFile} to foobar as seen below.
$VAR1 = {
'ItemData' => {
'Item' => {
'ItemNum' => '2',
'Alternate' => {
'Stocked' => 'Y',
'MfgCode' => 'FRA',
'InFile' => 'foobar',
'Description' => 'OIL FILTER',
'QtyAvailable' => '29'
},
'UOM' => ' ',
'PriceList' => '25.00'
}
}
};
References are supposed to do that, because they only reference something. That's what's good about them.
To make a real copy, you need to dereference and create a new anonymous hash reference.
# create a new ref
# deref
$item->{ItemData}->{Item}->{Alternate} = { %{ $alt->{Alternate} } };
This will create a shallow copy. The values directly inside of the Alternate key will be copies, but if they contain references, those will not be copied, but referenced.
If you do want to merge larger data structures where more than the content of one key needs to be merged, take a look at Hash::Merge instead.