Deep Copy

[bseel]

I am trying to make a deep copy in a complex data structure. I have a hash that has 
all of its values as anonymous arrays. I need to copy the entire hash as a completely 
separate hash so that I can manipulate the data in the copy without affecting the 
original data. Copying the key of the hash is easy, that is plain data. However 
copying the value is harder because it is the anonymous array (so whenever I try to 
copy the data, it always copies the reference to the array).

-----------------------------------------
my $hashref;

sub hashref()
{
  return $hashref; 
}

$hashref->{ele1} = ["val1", "val2"];
$hashref->{ele2} = ["val3", "val4"];
$hashref->{ele3} = ["val5", "val6"];

my %newhash = %$hashref;

my @keys = keys(%newhash);
foreach my $arraykey (@keys)
{
    my $ref = $hashref->{$arraykey};
    $newhash{$arraykey} = @$ref;
}
---------------------------------------------------

But then when I do: 

--------------------------------------------------
$newhash{ele1}->[0]="x";
$newhash{ele2}->[0]="y";

print $hashref->{ele1}->[0];
print $hashref->{ele2}->[0];
------------------------------------------------

It changes the values in both the referenced hash and the copied hash. How do I get a 
real copy?

TIA

Brian Seel

--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]