Re: Iterative HOH or AOH?

[ig]

In addition to the issue of assigning default values in the cases where your input data provides none, you also have the issue that your input data has a variable organization. The value of the ProductVersion key might be a reference to an anonymous hash containing the details of a single product version or it might be a reference to an anonymous hash with a key for each of several product versions, where each key is the 'name' of the product version and each value is a reference to an anonymous hash containing the details of that product version (except for the name field, which is the key value).

OK, even I can't read that, and I like words. What I would do is normalize the structure, then process that, maybe like this:

foreach my $product (keys %sw) {
    print "Now processing $product\n";
    my $version = '0';
    my $release = '0';
    my $description = $sw{$product}{'description'};
    my $vendorUniqueKeyRef = $sw{$product}{'vendorUniqueKeyRef'};
    my $swUniqueKey = $sw{$product}{'swUniqueKey'};
    if ($sw{$product}{ProductVersion}) {
        if(exists($sw{$product}{ProductVersion}{name})) {
            # Push the immediate hash down, keyed by name
            # ignoring the duplicate name field
            $sw{$product}{ProductVersion} = {
                $sw{$product}{ProductVersion}{name} => $sw{$product}{P
+roductVersion}
            };
        }
        foreach my $product_version_name (keys %{$sw{$product}{Product
+Version}}) {
            if($sw{$produt}{ProductVersion}{$product_version_name}{Pro
+ductReleaseVersion}) {
                if(exists($sw{$produt}{ProductVersion}{$product_versio
+n_name}{ProductReleaseVersion}{name})) {
                    # Push the immediate hash down, keyed by name
                    # ignoring the duplicate name field
                    $sw{$produt}{ProductVersion}{$product_version_name
+}{ProductReleaseVersion} = {
                        $sw{$produt}{ProductVersion}{$product_version_
+name}{ProductReleaseVersion}{name} =>
                            $sw{$produt}{ProductVersion}{$product_vers
+ion_name}{ProductReleaseVersion};
                    };
                }
                foreach my $product_version_release_name (keys %{$sw{$
+product}{ProductVersion}{$product_version_name}{ProductReleaseVersion
+}}) {
                    # Print / store a record for the case that there i
+s both a ProductVersion and ProductReleaseVersion
                }
            } else {
                # Print / store a record for the case that there is a 
+ProductVersion but no ProductReleaseVersion
            }
        }
    } else {
        # Print / store a record for the case that there is no Product
+Version (and, therefore, no nested ProductReleaseVersion)
    }
};

I haven't actually printed the output. I would probably do that with some subroutines to avoid duplication, and set defaults if values are missing.