Question

I’ve got a data structure that is a hash that contains an array of hashes. I’d like to reach in there and pull out the first hash that matches a value I’m looking for. I tried this:

   my $result = shift grep {$_->{name} eq 'foo'} @{$hash_ref->{list}};

But that gives me this error: Type of arg 1 to shift must be array (not grep iterator). I’ve re-read the perldoc for grep and I think what I’m doing makes sense. grep returns a list, right? Is it in the wrong context?

I’ll use a temporary variable for now, but I’d like to figure out why this doesn’t work.

Answer 1

A list isn’t an array.

my ($result) = grep {$_->{name} eq 'foo'} @{$hash_ref->{list}};

… should do the job though. Take the return from grep in list context, but don’t assign any of the values other than the first.