I have a reference table that I want to put in a hash and then when I read in a given line with a matching key, be able to pick up the array and assign the elements and manipulate the elements (not while they are part of hash. Here is how I set up the hash: %TITLES = (); open(RTITLE, '/common/lib/rtitles') || die "Cant open rtitles: $!\n"; while (<RTITLE>) { unless (/^#/) { chomp; ($title, $rest) = split ' ', $_, 2; @fields = split ' ',$rest; $TITLES{$title} = [ @fields ]; } } The records in rtitles look like this: TAPE_EXTRACT_REPORT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 I can print them out correctly with this: for $line (keys %TITLES) { print "$line: @{ $TITLES{$line} }\n"; } PROBLEM: I want to take the zeros which shortly will take on other values into variables when I get a key match. Here is my code to do that: foreach $keytitle (keys %TITLES) { if ( grep /$keytitle/, $lookup ) { ($im, $rptid, $edate, $rdate, $unused) = split ' ', @{ $TITLES{$keytitle} }, 5 [1 2 3 4 5]; print "LookUp: $lookup\n"; print "Report Name: $rptname\n"; print "Receive Date: $rcvdate\n"; print "Process Date: $procdate\n"; print "IMAGE: $im RPTID: $rptid EFFDATE: $edate RUNDATE: $rdate UNUSED: $unused\n"; exit; What I get out of the last print line is: IMAGE: 9 RPTID: EFFDATE: RUNDATE: UNUSED: 9 just happens to be the count of elements in an entry. My statement after the grep is patterned after the statement above PROBLEM that prints out the hash array but now doesn't work to pull out the elements. I obviously am getting a count. How do I get the elements of the string? Man is this cool stuff, BUT it really hurts my poor brain. I feel frazzeled after a days worth of Perling. Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of it, but at 60+ I think I need ear plugs 'cause it must be leaking out of my ears. :-) TIA -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin ------------------------------------------------------------------------- RRRRR Gary Luther RR RR SAF RR RR UTABEGAS 2500 Broadway RR RR Helena, MT 59602 RRRR [EMAIL PROTECTED] RR RR ULE !! RR RR Visit our website at RR RR http://www.safmt.org
BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 X-GWTYPE:USER FN:Gary Luther TEL;WORK:0631 ORG:;Computer Center TEL;PREF;FAX:(406) 444-0684 EMAIL;WORK;PREF;NGW:[EMAIL PROTECTED] N:Luther;Gary TITLE:Systems Administrator END:VCARD