Hash and array with Perl - arrays

Question

I have a .plist file that can be seen by Data::Dumper into this form
$VAR1 = {
'SPOOLS' => [
'SPOOL1',
'SPOOL2',
'SPOOL3'
],
'path' => '/usr/local/thanks/for/your/help',
'contentMatch' => [
{
'priority' => '1',
'match' => '*.hello'
},
{
'match' => '*.guys',
'priority' => '2'
}
]
};
To access my .plist file in Perl, I use this code:
my $locPlist = "conf.plist";
my $configdict = NSDictionary->dictionaryWithContentsOfFile_($locPlist);
my $plistref = Foundation::perlRefFromObjectRef($configdict);
my %plist = %{$plistref};
I know how to access the "path" with "$plist{path}" and the SPOOLS array with "$plist{SPOOLS}[0]" but:
How can I get the of SPOOLS into an array, something like my #array = $plist{SPOOLS} and how can I also get the content of "contentMatch" ?
Thanks for your help!
EDIT:
Thank you so much for your help, I was able to access the data. But is there a cleaner way to get back the content from contentMatch in a hash and access directly instead of doing that:
my $number_matches = scalar #{ $plistref->{contentMatch} } ;
my $a = 0;
my %events;
foreach ( #{ $plistref->{contentMatch} } ) {
$events{match}[$a] = $_->{match};
$events{priority}[$a] = $_->{priority};
$a = $a+1;
}
Best,
Tim.

Answer 1

my #spools = #{ $plistref->{SPOOLS} };
my #content_match = #{ $plistref->{contentMatch} };
Or, to dig a little deeper into the contentMatch example:
foreach ( #{ $plistref->{contentMatch} } ) {
say "match: $_->{match}";
say "priority: $_->{priority}";
}
Plenty more information about dealing with complex data structures in Perl in the Perl Data Structures Cookbook.
Update: You ask for help accessing the contentMatch data in another way. I'm not really sure what you're asking - all your sample code seems to do is to transpose an array of hashes into a hash of arrays. And I think that the array of hashes is a much better representation of of the data.
But it's your code and your data. So I think this is how I'd write what you're trying to do.
my %events;
foreach ( #{ $plistref->{contentMatch} } ) {
push #{ $events{match} }, $_->{match};
push #{ $events{priority}, $_->{priority};
}
I'd be far happier keeping it as an array of hashes, and I've already given you that code.
my #content_match = #{ $plistref->{contentMatch} };
I think that understanding how complex data structures work in Perl is crucial to becoming a competent Perl programmer. I highly recommend getting to grips with the examples in perldsc.