Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2001 11:59:50 GMT
From: Sudhir Krishnan <sudhir@newmail.net>
Subject: Arrays, References and indexes.
Message-Id: <3B9B5A80.9D2198E3@newmail.net>

Hi,
 
I've been using perl since a week.

I need to read in a number of files and use an appropriate
data-structure for the same.

Each file is divided into a number of sections.
Each line will be a record


 file 1    file 2   file 3
[     ]  [     ]  [     ]
[     ]  [     ]  [     ]
  ---     ---      ---
[     ]  [     ]  [     ]
[     ]  [     ]  [     ]
  ----     ----    ----
[     ]  [     ]  [     ]
[     ]  [     ]  [     ]

Something like a triple dimensional array seems to suit the purpose.


a[i][j][k];

i=file index
j=section index in file
k=line (record) index in (file, section)


While iterating over the files, I'm storing it as:

a[i][j][k] = $_;

And it seems to work fine.

Problems:
1) I don't really understand the underlying implementation 
   with references.

2) I use a[i][j][k] for getting/setting values, its
   3 loops and is cumbersume.

3) I'd like to know how I can get/set values without using indexes.

  i.e for a simple array:
instead of
   for ($i=0; $i <=$#ARR; $i++)

I'd like to use
   for $val (@ARR)

But in my case, $val will be a reference until I read the 3rd level,
right?

Sample code would be really appreciated!!

thanks!
Sudhir