use warnings;
use strict;

my $code = 
{
"StatusCode"=> 0,
"StatusInfo"=> "Command Processed OK",
"PageNumber"=> 0,
"TotalPageCount"=> 1,
"TotalProductCount"=> 1,
"PageProductCount"=> 1,
"Products"=>
[
{
"BaseProductId"=> "50043662",
"EANBarcode"=> "5000175411118",
"CheaperAlternativeProductId"=> "",
"HealthierAlternativeProductId"=> "",
"ImagePath"=> "http=>//img.tesco.com/Groceries/pi/118/5000175411118/ID
+Shot_90x90.jpg",
"MaximumPurchaseQuantity"=> 99,
"Name"=> "Oxo 12 Chicken Stock Cubes 71G",
"OfferPromotion"=> "Price Drop Was £1.13 Now £1.00 ",
"OfferValidity"=> "valid from 30/7/2012 until 9/9/2012",
"OfferLabelImagePath"=> "http=>//www.tesco.com/Groceries/UIAssets/I/Si
+tes/Retail/Superstore/Online/Product/pos/save.png",
"Price"=> 1,
"PriceDescription"=> "£1.41 each",
"ProductId"=> "254881114",
"ProductType"=> "QuantityOnlyProduct",
"UnitPrice"=> 1.41,
"UnitType"=> "100g"
}
]
}
;

print $code->{Products}[0]{ProductId},"\n";

__END__

254881114
[download]

See also:

• perldsc
• Data::Dumper

Thank you very much toolic. Your assistance was really appreciated. I will read up on the links, but an initial glance tells me I've a long way to go before I understand half of it. Couple of questions. Not sure I understood your reference to fat commas - they were in fact colons - but your code worked in any event. What was the returned data, was it a hash or an array? I need to read something a little easier than perldsc to understand the code you posted. Once again thank you for helping Best wishes. James.

Thank you very much toolic.

You're welcome.

Not sure I understood your reference to fat commas

See Fat_comma and Comma Operator

Regarding my solution... don't use it :) Other monks are on to the real problem, that you need to look into parsing JSON.

Please search cpan.org for a module suitable to interpret the the return type.
That will allow you to reference the variable desired easily.

If this is a test situation, you can use a regex like:

 my ($prodid) = $code=~/"ProductId": "([^"]+)"/;
[download]

It looks like the data returned is in JSON/YAML format.

I think you're onto something. The WebService::Tesco::API POD does not say, but looking through the source code, product_search eventually calls get...

sub get {
...
return JSON->new->utf8->decode($res);
[download]

Welcome to the world of Perl.

It looks like your data is in JSON format. Is this correct? If so, you should look at the JSON module on CPAN.org. Go to the section called HOW DO I DECODE A DATA FROM OUTER AND ENCODE TO OUTER.