I have a response which is displayed through Data::Dumper - Dumper($cat_response->result->{'categories'})
$VAR1 = { 'literature' => '1120', 'law' => '1153', 'arts and crafts' => '1132', 'children' => '1141', 'hobbies' => '1133', 'economy' => '1166', 'jobs' => '1140', 'media' => '1144', 'music' => '1147', 'animals' => '1170', 'business' => '1119', 'diet' => '1122', 'travel reviews' => '1154', 'jewelry' => '1157', 'movies' => '1146', 'television' => '1125', 'politics' => '1168', 'internet' => '1139', 'history' => '1129', 'recipes' => '1156', 'press releases' => '1151', 'presents' => '1128', 'marketing' => '1143', 'translations' => '1162', 'fashion' => '1145', 'technology' => '1163', 'real estate' => '1138', 'computer' => '1173', 'automobile' => '1116', 'finances' => '1126', 'weddings' => '1134', 'games' => '1127', 'esoterism' => '1124', 'horoscopes' => '1135', 'shopping' => '1123', 'humor' => '1137', 'miscellaneous' => '1159', 'science' => '1167', 'programming' => '1152', 'languages' => '1161', 'beauty' => '1117', 'sports' => '1160', 'hotels' => '1136', 'plants' => '1149', 'education' => '1118', 'traveling' => '1155', 'health' => '1130', 'telecommunication' => '1164', 'environment' => '1171', 'software' => '1158', 'sweepstakes' => '1131', 'logistics' => '1142', 'home and family' => '1169', 'news' => '1148' };
To access it, I use:
my %categories = $cat_response->result->{'categories'};
foreach my $cat (keys (%categories)) {
<option value="<% $categories{'$cat'} %>"><% $cat %></option>
}
However, the value of Dumper($cat) is: $VAR1 = 'HASH(0x7fe972641560)';
Did I miss something?
You missing use strict; use warnings; for one. (Well, either that, or you forgot to tell us that Perl told you about your problem.)
$cat_response->result->{'categories'} contains a reference to a hash. Makes no sense to assign that to a hash.
my $categories = $cat_response->result->{'categories'};
foreach my $cat (keys (%$categories)) {
<option value="<% $categories->{'$cat'} %>"><% $cat %></option>
}
Related
I am working on a below hash of hashes in perl, wherein i have some values in
inner hash that are same for different key timestamps. Is there any way to merge the timestamp keys for similar values?
'Test Responder Data String' => {
'2018-01-26' => 'zzz00175002802;newData1',
'2018-01-20' => 'xxy00171329968;data1',
'2018-01-27' => 'xxy00171329968;data1',
'2018-01-28' => 'xxy00171329968;data1'
'2018-01-04' => 'www00171510082;ResponderData',
'2018-01-17' => 'rrr00175002256;try data',
'2018-01-05' => 'aaa00175033226;response try',
'2018-01-08' => 'aaa00175033226;response try'
}
Expected Result:
'Test Responder Data String' => {
'2018-01-26' => 'zzz00175002802;newData1',
'2018-01-20,2018-01-27,2018-01-28' => 'xxy00171329968;data1',
'2018-01-04' => 'www00171510082;ResponderData',
'2018-01-17' => 'rrr00175002256;try data',
'2018-01-05,2018-01-08' => 'aaa00175033226;response try'
}
my %h=(
'2018-01-26' => 'zzz00175002802;newData1',
'2018-01-20' => 'xxy00171329968;data1',
'2018-01-27' => 'xxy00171329968;data1',
'2018-01-28' => 'xxy00171329968;data1',
'2018-01-04' => 'www00171510082;ResponderData',
'2018-01-17' => 'rrr00175002256;try data',
'2018-01-05' => 'aaa00175033226;response try',
'2018-01-08' => 'aaa00175033226;response try'
);
my %t;
push #{ $t{ $h{$_} } }, $_ for keys %h;
my %result = map { join(",", #{$t{$_}}) => $_ } keys %t;
use Data::Dumper; print Dumper \%result;
output
$VAR1 = {
'2018-01-17' => 'rrr00175002256;try data',
'2018-01-05,2018-01-08' => 'aaa00175033226;response try',
'2018-01-26' => 'zzz00175002802;newData1',
'2018-01-04' => 'www00171510082;ResponderData',
'2018-01-27,2018-01-20,2018-01-28' => 'xxy00171329968;data1'
};
I have the following output from hash in perl:
$VAR1 = {
'ins_api' => {
'sid' => 'eoc',
'outputs' => {
'output' => [
{
'body' => {
'TABLE_interface' => {
'ROW_interface' => [
{
'vdc_lvl_in_pkts' => 17081772,
'vdc_lvl_in_avg_bits' => 3128,
'eth_autoneg' => 'on',
'eth_speed' => '1000 Mb/s',
'admin_state' => 'up',
'vdc_lvl_out_mcast' => '65247',
'state' => 'up',
'eth_mtu' => '1500',
'eth_hw_addr' => '78ba.f9ad.b248',
'eth_mdix' => 'off',
'interface' => 'mgmt0',
'eth_ip_addr' => '10.56.32.84',
'eth_bw' => 1000000,
'vdc_lvl_in_avg_pkts' => '3',
'vdc_lvl_out_bytes' => '3463952330',
'vdc_lvl_in_ucast' => '7653891',
'eth_ip_prefix' => '10.',
'eth_rxload' => '1',
'eth_txload' => '1',
'eth_reliability' => '255',
'eth_dly' => 10,
'vdc_lvl_in_mcast' => '8742911',
'eth_ip_mask' => 24,
'eth_bia_addr' => '78ba.f9ad.b248',
'eth_duplex' => 'full',
'vdc_lvl_out_pkts' => '8668507',
'vdc_lvl_out_avg_pkts' => '1',
'vdc_lvl_in_bcast' => '684970',
'vdc_lvl_out_avg_bits' => '1840',
'medium' => 'broadcast',
'vdc_lvl_out_bcast' => '5',
'vdc_lvl_out_ucast' => '8603255',
'eth_ethertype' => '0x0000',
'vdc_lvl_in_bytes' => '1985125644',
'eth_hw_desc' => 'GigabitEthernet'
},
{
'eth_babbles' => '0',
'eth_outbytes' => '7362149107971',
'eth_outucast' => '16348249961',
'eth_clear_counters' => 'never',
'eth_watchdog' => '0',
'eth_inpkts' => 8644872191,
'eth_inbytes' => '3415386845315',
'eth_out_flowctrl' => 'off',
'eth_bad_proto' => '0',
'eth_frame' => '0',
----- output omitted -------
},
What would be the best way to loop via ROW_interface array and print some of the elements? I am just trying to get the elements in the ROW_interface array.
my $ROW_Interfaces = $output->{body}{TABLE_interface}{ROW_interface};
for my $ROW_Interfaces (#$ROW_Interfaces) {
...
}
It seems there can be more than one output, so you'll have to locate the appropriate one similarly.
Similar to #ikegami's answer, but handles the multiple output entries. The if defined... is there as the structure isn't complete, and I wasn't sure if each entry had the same keys or not.
for my $output (#{ $VAR1->{ins_api}{outputs}{output} }){
for my $row_int (#{ $output->{body}{TABLE_interface}{ROW_interface} }){
print "$row_int->{eth_frame}\n" if exists $row_int->{eth_frame};
}
}
I'm using Search::Elasticsearch and Search::Elasticsearch::Scroll for search and scroll into my elasticsearch server.
In scrolling process, for some querys, I'm seeing the next errors while I'm scrolling the search results:
2016/03/22 11:03:38 - 265885 FATAL: [Daemon.pm][8221]: Something gone wrong, error $VAR1 = bless( {
'msg' => '[Missing] ** [http://localhost:9200]-[404] Not Found, called from sub Search::Elasticsearch::Scroll::next at searcher.pl line 92. With vars: {\'body\' => {\'hits\' => {\'hits\' => [],\'max_score\' => \'0\',\'total\' => 5215},\'timed_out\' => bless( do{\\(my $o = 0)}, \'JSON::XS::Boolean\' ),\'_shards\' => {\'failures\' => [{\'index\' => undef,\'reason\' => {\'reason\' => \'No search context found for id [4920053]\',\'type\' => \'search_context_missing_exception\'},\'shard\' => -1},{\'index\' => undef,\'reason\' => {\'reason\' => \'No search context found for id [5051485]\',\'type\' => \'search_context_missing_exception\'},\'shard\' => -1},{\'index\' => undef,\'reason\' => {\'reason\' => \'No search context found for id [4920059]\',\'type\' => \'search_context_missing_exception\'},\'shard\' => -1},{\'index\' => undef,\'reason\' => {\'reason\' => \'No search context found for id [5051496]\',\'type\' => \'search_context_missing_exception\'},\'shard\' => -1},{\'index\' => undef,\'reason\' => {\'reason\' => \'No search context found for id [5051500]\',\'type\' => \'search_context_missing_exception\'},\'shard\' => -1}],\'failed\' => 5,\'successful\' => 0,\'total\' => 5},\'_scroll_id\' => \'c2NhbjswOzE7dG90YWxfaGl0czo1MjE1Ow==\',\'took\' => 2},\'request\' => {\'serialize\' => \'std\',\'path\' => \'/_search/scroll\',\'ignore\' => [],\'mime_type\' => \'application/json\',\'body\' => \'c2Nhbjs1OzQ5MjAwNTM6bHExbENzRDVReEc0OV9UMUgzd3Vkdzs1MDUxNDg1OnJrQ3lsUkRKVHRxRWRWeURoOTB4WVE7NDkyMDA1OTpscTFsQ3NENVF4RzQ5X1QxSDN3dWR3OzUwNTE0OTY6cmtDeWxSREpUdHFFZFZ5RGg5MHhZUTs1MDUxNTAwOnJrQ3lsUkRKVHRxRWRWeURoOTB4WVE7MTt0b3RhbF9oaXRzOjUyMTU7\',\'qs\' => {\'scroll\' => \'1m\'},\'method\' => \'GET\'},\'status_code\' => 404}
',
'stack' => [
[
'searcher.pl',
92,
'Search::Elasticsearch::Scroll::next'
]
],
'text' => '[http://localhost:9200]-[404] Not Found',
'vars' => {
'body' => {
'hits' => {
'hits' => [],
'max_score' => '0',
'total' => 5215
},
'timed_out' => bless( do{\(my $o = 0)}, 'JSON::XS::Boolean' ),
'_shards' => {
'failures' => [
{
'index' => undef,
'reason' => {
'reason' => 'No search context found for id [4920053]',
'type' => 'search_context_missing_exception'
},
'shard' => -1
},
{
'index' => undef,
'reason' => {
'reason' => 'No search context found for id [5051485]',
'type' => 'search_context_missing_exception'
},
'shard' => -1
},
{
'index' => undef,
'reason' => {
'reason' => 'No search context found for id [4920059]',
'type' => 'search_context_missing_exception'
},
'shard' => -1
},
{
'index' => undef,
'reason' => {
'reason' => 'No search context found for id [5051496]',
'type' => 'search_context_missing_exception'
},
'shard' => -1
},
{
'index' => undef,
'reason' => {
'reason' => 'No search context found for id [5051500]',
'type' => 'search_context_missing_exception'
},
'shard' => -1
}
],
'failed' => 5,
'successful' => 0,
'total' => 5
},
'_scroll_id' => 'c2NhbjswOzE7dG90YWxfaGl0czo1MjE1Ow==',
'took' => 2
},
'request' => {
'serialize' => 'std',
'path' => '/_search/scroll',
'ignore' => [],
'mime_type' => 'application/json',
'body' => 'c2Nhbjs1OzQ5MjAwNTM6bHExbENzRDVReEc0OV9UMUgzd3Vkdzs1MDUxNDg1OnJrQ3lsUkRKVHRxRWRWeURoOTB4WVE7NDkyMDA1OTpscTFsQ3NENVF4RzQ5X1QxSDN3dWR3OzUwNTE0OTY6cmtDeWxSREpUdHFFZFZ5RGg5MHhZUTs1MDUxNTAwOnJrQ3lsUkRKVHRxRWRWeURoOTB4WVE7MTt0b3RhbF9oaXRzOjUyMTU7',
'qs' => {
'scroll' => '1m'
},
'method' => 'GET'
},
'status_code' => 404
},
'type' => 'Missing'
}, 'Search::Elasticsearch::Error::Missing' );
The code I'm using is the next one (simplified) :
# Retrieve scroll
my $scroll = $self->getScrollBySignature($item);
# Retrieve all affected documents ids
while (my #docs = $scroll->next(500)) {
# Do stuff with #docs
}
The function getScrollBySignature have the next code in order to call to elasticSearch
my $scroll = $self->{ELASTIC}->scroll_helper(
index => $self->{INDEXES},
search_type => 'scan',
ignore_unavailable => 1,
body => {
size => $self->{PAGINATION},
query => {
filtered => {
filter => {
bool => {
must => [{term => {signature_id => $item->{profileId}}}, {terms => {channel_type_id => $type}}]
}
}
}
}
}
);
As you can see, I'm doing the scroll without passing scroll parameter then as documentation says, the time that scroll is alive is 1 min.
The elasticSearch is a cluster of 3 servers, and the query that ends with that error retrieves a bit more than 5000 docs.
My first solution was to update the life time for scroll to 5 minutes and the error didn't appear.
The question is, as I understand every time I'm calling $scroll->next() the life time off scroll affected is upgraded 1m more, then how is possible to receive those context related errors?
I'm doing something in a bad manner?
Thank you all.
The first thing that comes to mind is that the timer is not updated. Have you checked this? You can do a query every 10 seconds for example and see if at the 6th query it gives you the error ...
Well, a good rule of thumb is inside a ->next() block, don't stay by iteration more than time that you've configured in scroll.
Between each call of ->next() you cannot stay more than that time configured. If you stay more, the scroll may be not be there and the error earch_context_missing_exception will appear.
My solution for this problem was inside next block only store data into array/hash structure and once the scroll process ended work with all data.
The solution of the question example:
# Retrieve scroll
my $scroll = $self->getScrollBySignature($item);
# Retrieve all affected documents ids
my #allDocs;
while (my #docs = $scroll->next(500)) {
push #allDocs, map {$_->{_id}} #docs
}
foreach (#allDocs) {
# Do stuff with doc
}
I have the following code to scrape a form for inputs and get the attributes id and name.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use URI;
use Data::Dumper::Simple;
use Web::Scraper;
my $urlToScrape = "http://digitalarkivet.arkivverket.no/finn_kilde";
my $scrap = scraper {
process 'div.listGroup.open > ul.grouped > li.expandable', 'data[]' => scraper {
process 'input', 'id' => '#id', name => '#name';
process 'label', 'label_for' => '#for';
process 'span.listExpander ', 'Text' => 'TEXT';
process 'ul.sublist1', 'sublist[]' => scraper {
process 'input', 'id' => '#id', name => '#name';
process 'label', 'label_for' => '#for';
process 'span', 'label' => 'TEXT';
};
};
};
my $res = $scrap->scrape(URI->new($urlToScrape));
print Dumper($res);
which gives me (shortend $res to fit screen better)
$res = {
'data' => [
{
'label_for' => 'ka0',
'sublist' => [
{
'label' => 'Statlig folketelling',
'label_for' => 'ka0kt0',
'name' => 'kt[]',
'id' => 'ka0kt0'
}
],
'name' => 'ka[]',
'id' => 'ka0>',
'Text' => 'Folketellinger'
},
{
'sublist' => [
{
'label' => 'Manntall',
'name' => 'kt[]',
'label_for' => 'ka1kt0',
'id' => 'ka1kt0'
}
],
'label_for' => 'ka1',
'id' => 'ka1>',
'name' => 'ka[]',
'Text' => 'Manntall'
},
....
{
'label_for' => 'r0',
'sublist' => [
{
'label_for' => 'r0f0',
'id' => 'r0f0',
'name' => 'f[]',
'label' => "01 Østfold"
}
],
'id' => 'r0',
'name' => 'r[]',
'Text' => "Østlandet"
},
{
'Text' => "Sørlandet",
'id' => 'r1',
'sublist' => [
{
'label_for' => 'r1f0',
'name' => 'f[]',
'id' => 'r1f0',
'label' => '09 Aust-Agder'
}
],
'label_for' => 'r1',
'name' => 'r[]'
}
]
};
I' have 2 issues I need to fix. First, I only want to get data for inputs having 'name' = ka[] (at top level).
Second, I only get data for first ul.sublist1 (If you study the page I'm scraping you can see that several "Kildekategori" have subsets of data, which are revealed if expanded/ clicked upon. Putting brackets on Text[] only gets me the sublist textnames, but not their attributes.
I'm thinking I might have to grab data in 2 scrapes instead, since nested values are revealed by id and label_for.
Solved it by scraping three times, foreach "level"
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use URI;
use Web::Scraper;
use Data::Dumper::Simple;
my %site;
my #res;
my $i;
my $j;
my $label_for;
my #scrape;
$site{'siteID'} = 1;
$site{'url'} = "http://digitalarkivet.arkivverket.no/finn_kilde";
$site{'name'} = "finn_kilde";
open FIL, ">$site{'name'}.csv" or die $!;
my $seperator=";";
$scrape[0] = scraper {
process 'div.listGroup.open > ul.grouped > li.expandable', 'data[]' => scraper {
process 'input',
'id' => '#id',
'value' => '#value',
'type' => '#type',
'name' => '#name';
process 'label', 'label_for' => '#for';
process 'span.listExpander ', 'text' => 'TEXT';
};
};
$scrape[1] = scraper {
process 'ul.sublist1 > li', 'data[]' => scraper {
process 'input',
'id' => '#id',
'value' => '#value',
'type' => '#type',
'name' => '#name';
process 'label', 'label_for' => '#for';
process 'span', 'text' => 'TEXT';
}
};
$scrape[2] = scraper {
process 'ul.sublist2 > li', 'data[]' => scraper {
process 'input',
'id' => '#id',
'value' => '#value',
'type' => '#type',
'name' => '#name';
process 'label', 'label_for' => '#for';
process 'span', 'text' => 'TEXT';
}
};
for $i (0 .. $#scrape){
$res[$i] = $scrape[$i]->scrape(URI->new($site{'url'}));
unless ($i) {
print FIL join($seperator,"label_for","text","name","value","id","type")."\n";
}
for $j (0 .. $#{$res[$i]->{data}}) {
if (defined($res[$i]->{data}[$j]->{label_for})){
$label_for=$res[$i]->{data}[$j]->{label_for};
} else {
$label_for="";
}
if (length($label_for)>0) {
my $name=$res[$i]->{data}[$j]->{name};
my $text=$res[$i]->{data}[$j]->{text};
my $value=$res[$i]->{data}[$j]->{value};
my $id=$res[$i]->{data}[$j]->{id};
my $type=$res[$i]->{data}[$j]->{type};
my #row=($label_for,$text,$name,$value,$id,$type);
print FIL join($seperator,#row);
print FIL "\n";
}
}
sleep(2);
}
close FIL;
print Dumper(\#res);
1;
$foo{alongkeyname}{anotherlongkeyname}{yetanotherlongkeyname}{afairlyshortkeynamewellitgotlongwhileiwastypingitsoiguessnot}{bob}{something} = 1;
How do I get Perl to print $foo and show me the full "path name" to
get to 1? In other words, I want output that looks similar to the
input above.
Data::Dumper won't do this, and the long key names wrap the output,
making even the indented form less useful.
Ages ago, I wrote my own "unfold" subroutine at https://github.com/barrycarter/bcapps/blob/master/bclib.pl#L109 which outputs:
<hash HASH(0x92a33a4)>
<key>
alongkeyname
</key>
<val>
<hash HASH(0x95103b4)>
<key>
anotherlongkeyname
</key>
<val>
<hash HASH(0x9510464)>
<key>
yetanotherlongkeyname
</key>
<val>
<hash HASH(0x9510434)>
<key>
afairlyshortkeynamewellitgotlongwhileiwastypingitsoiguessnot
</key>
<val>
<hash HASH(0x95bae7c)>
<key>
bob
</key>
<val>
<hash HASH(0x95cf8bc)>
something: 1
</hash HASH(0x95cf8bc)>
</val>
</hash HASH(0x95bae7c)>
</val>
</hash HASH(0x9510434)>
</val>
</hash HASH(0x9510464)>
</val>
</hash HASH(0x95103b4)>
</val>
</hash HASH(0x92a33a4)>
but that's not really useful either.
Real-life project inspiring this question: pulling SYNOP/BUOY data from the
XML::Simple hashified output of metaf2xml
EDIT: Thank you Ben! I tried this and it worked great on my example. Then I tried it on another hash, and got:
$VAR1 = {'remark' => [{'obsStationType' => {'stationType' => {'v' => 'AO2'},'s' => 'AO2'}},{'needMaint' => {'s' => '$'}}],'QNH' => {'inHg' => {'v' => '29.99'},'s' => 'A2999'},'visPrev' => {'distance' => {'u' => 'SM','v' => '7','rp' => '1'},'s' => '7SM'},'sfcWind' => {'wind' => {'speed' => {'u' => 'KT','v' => '3'},'dir' => {'rn' => '5','v' => '60','rp' => '4'}},'measurePeriod' => {'u' => 'MIN','v' => '2'},'s' => '06003KT'},'obsStationId' => {'id' => {'v' => 'KBTR'},'s' => 'KBTR'},'obsTime' => {'s' => '080940Z','timeAt' => {'hour' => {'v' => '09'},'minute' => {'v' => '40'},'day' => {'v' => '08'}}},'s' => 'KBTR 080940Z 06003KT 7SM SCT003 BKN200 24/23 A2999 RMK AO2 $','cloud' => [{'cloudCover' => {'v' => 'SCT'},'s' => 'SCT003','cloudBase' => {'u' => 'FT','v' => '300'}},{'cloudCover' => {'v' => 'BKN'},'s' => 'BKN200','cloudBase' => {'u' => 'FT','v' => '20000'}}],'temperature' => {'relHumid4' => {'v' => '94.15'},'dewpoint' => {'temp' => {'u' => 'C','v' => '23'}},'relHumid3' => {'v' => '94.03'},'relHumid1' => {'v' => '94.16'},'relHumid2' => {'v' => '94.17'},'air' => {'temp' => {'u' => 'C','v' => '24'}},'s' => '24/23'}};
So the question I think I want to answer is: what value of this hash will give me the "94.15" you see above? It's sort of hard to tell from the above.
(If anyone's curious, the answer is $hash{temperature}{relHumid4}{v})
MORE EDIT: Thanks, Ilmari. I tried dump_var($VAR1) w/ my VAR1 above and got...
HASH(0x9ae6764) = undef;
I also tried dump_var({$VAR1}) with the same result. I might've missed something. Could you cut and paste my VAR1 above and see if it works? I did export 'Dumper' as you indicate in your 'use' statement.
Here's a quick do-it-yourself solution:
use Data::Dumper 'Dumper';
sub dump_var {
my ($prefix, $var) = #_;
my #rv;
local $Data::Dumper::Indent = 0;
local $Data::Dumper::Terse = 1;
if (ref $var eq 'ARRAY' and #$var) {
for my $i (0 .. $#$var) {
push #rv, dump_var($prefix . "->[$i]", $var->[$i]);
}
} elsif (ref $var eq 'HASH' and %$var) {
foreach my $key (sort keys %$var) {
push #rv, dump_var($prefix . '->{'.Dumper($key).'}', $var->{$key});
}
} elsif (ref $var eq 'SCALAR') {
push #rv, dump_var('${' . $prefix . '}', $$var);
} else {
push #rv, "$prefix = " . Dumper($var) . ";\n";
}
return #rv;
}
and some test code:
my $foo = {
alpha => [ 'beta', \ 'gamma' ],
one => { two => { three => 3, four => 3.141 },
five => { six => undef, seven => \*STDIN },
},
foobar => sub { print "Hello, world!\n"; },
};
print dump_var('$foo' => $foo);
which produces the output:
$foo->{'alpha'}->[0] = 'beta';
${$foo->{'alpha'}->[1]} = 'gamma';
$foo->{'foobar'} = sub { "DUMMY" };
$foo->{'one'}->{'five'}->{'seven'} = \*::STDIN;
$foo->{'one'}->{'five'}->{'six'} = undef;
$foo->{'one'}->{'two'}->{'four'} = '3.141';
$foo->{'one'}->{'two'}->{'three'} = 3;
Edit: While testing a PHP version of this code, I realized that it didn't correctly handle empty arrays and hashes. I've fixed the code so that such values are passed directly to Dumper.
Data::Dumper can print output similar to what you're looking for by setting Indent to 0.
[ben#imac ~]$ perl
use Data::Dumper;
$Data::Dumper::Indent = 0;
$foo{alongkeyname}{anotherlongkeyname}{yetanotherlongkeyname}{afairlyshortkeynamewellitgotlongwhileiwastypingitsoiguessnot}{bob}{something} = 1;
print Dumper(\%foo);
Output:
$VAR1 = {'alongkeyname' => {'anotherlongkeyname' => {'yetanotherlongkeyname' => {'afairlyshortkeynamewellitgotlongwhileiwastypingitsoiguessnot' => {'bob' => {'something' => 1}}}}}};
For a possible solution to the problem behind your question, please see the feature announced today in the Project News for metaf2xml.