Associating a value with a display name

Hi all,

Firstly I apologise if this has been asked, but I don't even know what to search for.

I have minimal understanding of perl and I need to make a change to an existing script.

If I have a field 'Code" with a value 'A1' I know how to display 'A1' as an associated name.

e.g.

%names ('A1' => 'A1 : Everything is OK')

and to print I would use :

$names{$rec{'Code'}}

Now the question how do I do the same thing

When the value of 'Code' is 'A1, A2' and I want to display :

A1 : Everything is OK
A2 : Caution is advised

So essentially I need to associated a comma delimited field of variable length (could any number codes) with display names.

Thanks in advance.

I'm confused. The way you worded your question, it seems like the answer is to just add another key->value pair to %names.

That way whatever 'Code' has a value of would be a key in %names.

Yet, you seem to be asking a different question.

Sorry, if I'm totally off base here.

Ok let me see if I can clarify more:

Let's say I have :

%names ('A1' => 'A1 : Everything is OK',
'A2' => 'A2 : Caution is advised' );


This will work with :

Code = 'A1' and will display 'A1 : Everything is OK'

or

Code = 'A2' and will diplay 'A2 : Caution is advised'


now how do I make

Code = 'A1, A2' display 'A1 : Everything is OK'
'A2 : Caution is advised'

In PHP I would explode the string and associate each register with $names, but I don't know how to do it in perl, although I am guessing something similar must be possible.

Ok. I see.

Well you could split the comma delimited string on the comma.

This would yield a list of codes.
If you wanted to use them to print line by line( or whatever ) you could run a loop through that array and print the values.


Output would be something like:


Hope that helps.

Thanks dsb, I think that looks about like what I need.

Sorry just one more point, I would have to split on a comma and a space, do I just type a space after the comma or do I need to enclose it in quotes like in PHP?

Thanks in advance.

As long as its between the 2 '/'s then you'll be good. I would use "\s" though. It'd just be easier to see when you're glancing over the code.



Also, I just realized a mistake I made. In my last post I said a loop like this would work:

That would give the original line you split though. Do this instead:


Sorry, for the confusion.

Thanks for the update. I'll try that.