#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w use strict; use Carp; my %Commands = ('who' => \&do_who, 'what' => \&do_what, 'why' => \&do_why, 'never' => \&do_never, 'again' => \&do_again, 'answer' => \&do_answer); { my $userinput = $ARGV[0]; my ($errmsg, $command) = check_commands (\%Commands, $userinput); if ($errmsg) { print "$errmsg\n"; exit; } &{$Commands {$command}}; } sub check_commands { @_ == 2 or croak "Incorrect number of parameters"; my ($cmdhash, $command) = @_; my @matches = grep /^$command/i, sort keys %$cmdhash; if (scalar @matches == 0) { return ("I don't know what '$command' means", undef); } elsif (scalar @matches > 1) { my $lastcmd = pop @matches; return ("'$command' is ambigous. It could mean " . join (', ', @matches) . " or $lastcmd", undef); } return (undef, $matches [0]); } sub do_who {print "Who\n"}; sub do_what {print "What\n"}; sub do_why {print "Why\n"}; sub do_never {print "Never\n"}; sub do_again {print "Again\n"}; sub do_answer {print "Answer\n"};