Deciphering the output from Data::Dumper

DigitalKitty has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi all.

I wrote a simple test file (test.txt):

Lateur Bart 97
Pierce Jerrad 96
Unknown planetscape 101
Miller Katie 86
[download]

Which I then read via the following perl program:

use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;
my %hash = ();
my ($lname, $fname, $score);
while( <> ) {
   ( $lname, $fname, $score ) = split;
   $hash{$lname}{$fname} = $score;
}

print Dumper(\%hash);
[download]

Since I am currently reading the 1st edition of 'Intermediate Perl' aka 'Perl Objects, References, and Modules', I am trying to understand how to read/interpret the output provided by Data::Dumper. If wanted to display the score each monk received or just their last name, how would I accomplish that? I tried...

print %{ $hash{$lname}{$fname}{$score} }\n";
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...but noticed the following complaints:

C:\Perl\bin>perl test16.pl test.txt
Global symbol "$lname" requires explicit package name at test16.pl lin
+e 12.
Global symbol "$fname" requires explicit package name at test16.pl lin
+e 12.
Global symbol "$score" requires explicit package name at test16.pl lin
+e 12.
Execution of test16.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

Any constructive advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
~Katie

Update: Solved the 'explicit package name issues' by declaring the lexical variables outside of the while loop.

Comment on Deciphering the output from Data::Dumper Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Deciphering the output from Data::Dumper by FunkyMonk (Chancellor) on Dec 14, 2007 at 23:32 UTC
You've confused their first and last names. The data is <lname fname score> but you assign those to `$fname, $lname, $score` `my %hash = (); while( <DATA> ) { my( $lname, $fname, $score ) = split; $hash{$lname}{$fname} = $score; } #just last names print join "\n", keys %hash; print "\n---\n"; #names and scores: for my $lname ( keys %hash ) { for my $fname ( keys %{ $hash{$lname} } ) { printf "$lname, $fname: $hash{$lname}{$fname}\n" } } __DATA__ Lateur Bart 97 Pierce Jerrad 96 Unknown planetscape 101 Miller Katie 86` [download] Output: `Pierce Lateur Miller Unknown --- Pierce, Jerrad: 96 Lateur, Bart: 97 Miller, Katie: 86 Unknown, planetscape: 101` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Deciphering the output from Data::Dumper by ww (Archbishop) on Dec 15, 2007 at 12:36 UTC
Methinks FunkyMonk hit this on the head.... and adding Data::Dumper to the mix above, `use Data::Dumper; print Dumper %hash;` [download] gives you reasonable (readable) output: `$VAR1 = 'Pierce'; $VAR2 = { 'Jerrad' => '96' }; $VAR3 = 'Lateur'; $VAR4 = { 'Bart' => '97' }; $VAR5 = 'Miller'; $VAR6 = { 'Katie' => '86' }; $VAR7 = 'Unknown'; $VAR8 = { 'planetscape' => '101' };` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Deciphering the output from Data::Dumper by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Dec 15, 2007 at 01:20 UTC
DigitalKitty, One of the issues you have is that you have not given names to your keys. Instead, you have used a value as a key. This is why the output of Data::Dumper is confusing. Consider this alternative: `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my %data; while (<DATA>) { chomp; my ($ln, $fn, $score) = split ' '; $data{$ln} = {fn => $fn, score => $score}; } print Dumper(\%data); # Show just last names print "$_\n" for sort keys %data; # Show name and score for my $ln (sort keys %data) { my ($fn, $score) = @{$data{$ln}}{qw/fn score/}; print "$ln\t$fn\t$score\n"; } __DATA__ Lateur Bart 97 Pierce Jerrad 96 Unknown planetscape 101 Miller Katie 86` [download] Cheers - L~R	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Deciphering the output from Data::Dumper by pascaldee (Acolyte) on Dec 16, 2007 at 02:44 UTC
Btw, consider replacing Data::Dumper with Data::Dump. It's about time already.	[reply]


No such thing as a small change
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