SPUG: xml parsing

[John W. Krahn]

luis medrano wrote:
> List,
> I trying to grab the content of xml file is under this tag
> <book:isbn>1-56592-243-3</book:isbn> but I tried to do it like this:
> 
> my $isbn=$$item{'book:isbn'};
> 
> and returns empty but if I do it like this :
> 
> my $isbn=$$item{book:isbn};
> 
> it gives me this error:
> 
> syntax error at books.pl line 64, near "{book:"
> syntax error at books.pl line 185, near "}"
> Execution of book.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

That is because ':' is not a "word" character and so the key has to be quoted
like your first example.  (Only alphanumeric and underscore characters will be
automagically quoted.)  Also, the usual way to dereference is:

my $isbn = $item->{ 'book:isbn' };

As to why it is empty, it is hard to say.  Could 'item' be an actual hash and
not a hash reference?



John
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