If you want to save your data structures for use by another program later, there are many ways to do it. The easiest way is to use Perl's Data::Dumper module, which turns a (possibly self-referential) data structure into a string that can be saved externally and later reconstituted with eval or do.
A separate program (or the same program) can then read in the file later:use Data::Dumper; $Data::Dumper::Purity = 1; # since %TV is self-referential open (FILE, "> tvinfo.perldata") or die "can't open tvinfo: $!"; print FILE Data::Dumper->Dump([\%TV], ['*TV']); close FILE or die "can't close tvinfo: $!";
or simply:open (FILE, "< tvinfo.perldata") or die "can't open tvinfo: $!"; undef $/; # read in file all at once eval <FILE>; # recreate %TV die "can't recreate tv data from tvinfo.perldata: $@" if $@; close FILE or die "can't close tvinfo: $!"; print $TV{simpsons}{members}[2]{age};
Many other solutions are available, with storage formats ranging from packed binary (very fast) to XML (very interoperable). Check out a CPAN mirror near you today!do "tvinfo.perldata" or die "can't recreate tvinfo: $! $@"; print $TV{simpsons}{members}[2]{age};
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