Question

I have an array with this type of content

a/a/a/test134.html
a/a/a/test223.html
a/b/b/test37.html
a/b/test41.html
a/b/test44.html
a/b/test432.html
a/d/test978.html
a/test.html

I need to split it by “directories” so that I can send each array for a directory into a function (please see code sample).

a/a/a/test134.html
a/a/a/test223.html

a/b/b/test37.html

a/b/test41.html
a/b/test44.html
a/b/test432.html

a/d/test978.html

a/test.html

This is what I have so far but I feel theres lots of bugs especially on end and beginning cases and is not clean enough to my liking.

for(my $i = 0; $i < scalar(@arrayKeys); $i++)
{
    my($filename, $directory) = fileparse($arrayKeys[$i]);
    my $currDir = $directory;

    # $currDir ne $prevDir: takes care of changes in path
    # $i + 1 == scalar(@arrayKeys): accounts for last row to be purged
    if($currDir ne $prevDir || $i + 1 == scalar(@arrayKeys))
    {   
        # if last row we need to push it
        if($i + 1 == scalar(@arrayKeys))
        {
            push(@sectionArrayKeys, $arrayKeys[$i]);
        }

        # ensure for first entry run we don't output
        if ($prevDir ne "")
        {
            &output(\@sectionArrayKeys);
        }

        # Clear Array and start new batch
        @sectionArrayKeys = ();
        push(@sectionArrayKeys, $arrayKeys[$i]);        
    }
    else
    {
        push(@sectionArrayKeys, $arrayKeys[$i]);        
    }

    $prevDir = $currDir;
}

Answer 1

Your script is confusing, but from what I understand, you want to split the array of paths into new arrays, depending on their path. Well, easiest way to keep them apart is using a hash, like so:

use warnings;
use strict;

my %dir_arrays;

while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    if (m{^(.+/)([^/]+)$}) {
        push @{$dir_arrays{$1}}, $_; # or use $2 for just filename
    }
}

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper \%dir_arrays;

__DATA__
a/a/a/test134.html
a/a/a/test223.html
a/b/b/test37.html
a/b/test41.html
a/b/test44.html
a/b/test432.html
a/d/test978.html
a/test.html

Output:

$VAR1 = {
          'a/b/' => [
                      'a/b/test41.html',
                      'a/b/test44.html',
                      'a/b/test432.html'
                    ],
          'a/d/' => [
                      'a/d/test978.html'
                    ],
          'a/b/b/' => [
                        'a/b/b/test37.html'
                      ],
          'a/a/a/' => [
                        'a/a/a/test134.html',
                        'a/a/a/test223.html'
                      ],
          'a/' => [
                    'a/test.html'
                  ]
        };

Now, to send these arrays to a function, do something like this:

for my $key (keys %dir_arrays) {
    my_function($dir_arrays{$key}); # this sends an array reference
}

If you prefer to send an array instead of an array reference, just dereference it:

my_function(@{$dir_arrays{$key}});

Edit: Changed the script to store the full path, as it was more in line with the wanted output in the question.