asked on

How to pass two arrays to another subroutine in Perl

How can I pass two arrays to another subroutine?

Example:

my ($result, @failedLineBits) = &helperFunctions::markFailedLines(@line_numbers,@data);

Open in new window

package helperFunctions;		
		
use strict;
use warnings;

sub markFailedLines{
my (@line_numbers, @data) = @_;

SOME CODE IN HERE

return ($result,@out);
}
1;

Open in new window

traoher

combine the two arrays into a single array using "push"

example:

@time = ("hour","minutes");
@date =("day","year");
Push (@time, @date);

Once you have the single array, pass the single array to the sub.

SOLUTION

kaufmed

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

Tolgar

ASKER

@kaufmed: Ok. I tried your solution and I am getting "Global symbol "@data" requires explicit package name" error.

Here is my whole function:

sub markFailedLines{
my ($line_numbers, $data) = @_;
my @out;
	if ($line_numbers) {
		foreach my $ln ($line_numbers) {
			$data[$ln+2] = "<font color=\"red\">$data[$ln+2]</font>";
			push(@out, '<br><br>');
			push @out, join('<br>', map{ join(': ', $_, $data[$_+2]) } $ln-3..$ln+3);
		}
		return ('FAILED',@out);
	} else {
		return ('PASSED',@out);
	}
}

Open in new window

What am I doing wrong here?

kaufmed

Do you have any code above sub markFailedLines?

ozo

my ($line_numbers, @data) = @_;

ozo

foreach my $ln ($line_numbers) {
There's no reason for such a loop over a single element

Tolgar

ASKER

@Ozo: $line_numbers is a reference to an array. It has more than one value in it.

ozo

markFailedLines(\@line_numbers,\@data);
sub markFailedLines{
my @line_numbers = @{+shift};
my @data = @{+shift};
foreach my $ln (@line_numbers) {

Tolgar

ASKER

@kuafmed: Yes there is another sub function. But the error is for the lines 6 and 8 in the above code.

Tolgar

ASKER

@Ozo: Why do I need to use shift? I don't find it very secure to use.
Is there a way of modifying my code above without using shift?

ozo

$line_numbers is a reference to an array. It has more than one value in it.

It is a single reference.
foreach my $ln ($line_numbers) {
would alias $ln to the single reference
foreach my $ln (@$line_numbers) {
would alias $ln to each of the elements in the referenced array

Tolgar

ASKER

@Ozo: I am confused. Can you please send me the modified version of my code above?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

ozo

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

ozo

If $line_numbers is always reference,

if ($line_numbers) {

will always be true

ozo

#If you call
markFailedLines(\@line_numbers,\@data);
#then you can use
sub markFailedLines{
my ($line_numbers, $data) = @_;
my @out;
 foreach my $ln (@$line_numbers) {
 $data->[$ln+2] = "$data->[$ln+2]"; #note that this modifies the original @data
 push @out, ' ',join(' ', map{ join(': ', $_, $data->[$_+2]) } $ln-3..$ln+3);
 }
 return @out?'PASSED':'FAILED',@out; #this will pass when @line_numbers is not empty
}

ozo

#If you want to pass a copy of @data to prevent the sub from modifying the original, you can call
markFailedLines(\@line_numbers,[@data]);

ozo

#Or you can pass only the first array as a reference:
markFailedLines(\@line_numbers,@data);

sub markFailedLines{
my ($line_numbers, @data) = @_;
my @out;
foreach my $ln (@$line_numbers) {
$data[$ln+2] = "$data[$ln+2]";
push @out, ' ',join(' ', map{ join(': ', $_, $data[$_+2]) } $ln-3..$ln+3);
}
return @out?'PASSED':'FAILED',@out;
}