Re: Opening an array of file names

[jwkrahn]

sub getFiles {
    my @fileNames = [ "manimp1.txt", "manimp2.txt" ];
    for my $i (0..$#fileNames) {
        open (FILE, "<", $fileNames[$i]) or die "Couldnt open file:  $
+fileNames[$i]\n";
        while (<FILE>) {
            $count++;
            my @line_array = split (/\t/, $_);
            chomp(@line_array);
            my $key = shift(@line_array);
            my $aref = [@line_array];
            $newPrices{$key} = $aref;
        }
        delete ($newPrices{'Part Num.'});
    }
}

That would probably be better as:

sub getFiles {
    my @fileNames = ( 'manimp1.txt', 'manimp2.txt' );
    for my $file ( @fileNames ) {
        open my $FILE, '<', $file or die "Couldnt open file:  $file be
+cause: $!";
        while ( <$FILE> ) {
            chomp;
            my ( $key, @line_array ) = split /\t/;
            $newPrices{ $key } = \@line_array;
        }
        $count += $.;
        delete $newPrices{ 'Part Num.' };
    }
}

[tnyflmngs]

Thanks for the input. The line:

$newPrices{ $key } = \@line_array;

is what I had originally, but my understanding is that is a reference to the array, and since the array changes when the next line is read, it made all the values in my hash the same, the last line of the last file. I understand that using  $newPrices{ $key } = [@line_array] creates a copy of the array. It is quite possible that I am mistaken since this is the first time I have really sat down with Perl.

[jwkrahn]

my ( $key, @line_array ) on the previous line creates a new variable each time through the loop so it is safe to use a reference to this variable.    If the variable was in a larger scope then what you describe would be a problem.