Derive a variable name from a variable?

[mavericknik]

Hello monks, So here is my question: I have an array of names, say

my @names = qw(adam jake john betty);

And for each name, I have a corresponding array,

my @adambooks;
my @jakebooks;
.
.
.

Now I'm trying to do:

foreach (@names) {
    my $cur_name = $_;
    &modify($cur_name, "Their correspinding array")
}

What is the easiest way to get the value of "Their corresponding array"?? I expect the answer is simple buy I'm pretty new to perl and cant for the life of me figure it out. Any pointers are greatly appreciated!

[GrandFather]

Use a hash instead:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

my %booksByBorrower = (
    adam => {"Learning Perl" => {borrowed => '2015-12-17'}},
    jake => {"Programming Perl" => {borrowed => '2015-12-08'}},
    john => {"Programming Perl" => {borrowed => '2015-12-12'}},
    betty => {"High Order Perl" => {borrowed => '2015-12-10'}},
);

for my $name (sort keys %booksByBorrower) {
    print "$name\n";
    
    for my $book (sort keys %{$booksByBorrower{$name}}) {
        print "  Borrowed $book $booksByBorrower{$name}{$book}{borrowe
+d}\n";
    }
}

Prints:

adam
  Borrowed Learning Perl 2015-12-17
betty
  Borrowed High Order Perl 2015-12-10
jake
  Borrowed Programming Perl 2015-12-08
john
  Borrowed Programming Perl 2015-12-12

Of course for this sort of task you should really be using a database, but that's a little heavy for such a trivial example.

[mavericknik]

Thank you for the pointers, I used an array reference as the hash value to solve the problem. Yes, I need to look into a better way of doing this. This is an oversimplified example I used to explain my problem, the actual size of the code is pretty big.

[Laurent_R]

Don't write Perl code that computes variable names. It can be done (it is called symbolic references), but it is bad practice, it is frowned upon for several good reasons, and it is bad enough that it will trigger a warning.

Use a hash instead.

Update: Just as you can shoot a bullet into your own foot or put your cat into the microwave oven, but you should not do it.

[Anonymous Monk]

Faq it is var var name use a hash http://perl.plover.com/varvarname.html

[Lennotoecom]

there is another way,
but that is a path to the dark side of the force


@names = qw/adam jake john betty/;
@adambooks = qw/ad_1 ad_2/;
@jakebooks = qw/ja_1 ja_2/;

for $n (@names){
print "$n:\n";
        print "\t@{$_}\n" for $n."books";    
}


there might be some jedi,
who'd tell you that it's wrong
they just want you to obey their will

[LanX]

This is only half the answer because using strict is a standard nowadays.

There might be cases where this is needed, but please apply no strict "refs" in a restricted block around it and use strict; in file scope.

see for instance no strict refs for blocks?

> there might be some jedi,

> who'd tell you that it's wrong

> they just want you to obey their will

Perl has no taboos, just best practices.

[mavericknik]

Haha I would've been seduced by the dark side if it weren't for the wisdom of the monks here!

[Lennotoecom]

^_^