Shell Programming and Scripting

Dear all,

I am a complete newbie to (perl) programming and I am completely stuck in a project. I have the following arrays

@array_1
@array_2

@array_A
@array_B
@array_C

Each element pair of array_1 and array_2 is linked to all elements of a third array (e.g. array_A, array_B or array_C). I would like to put the arrays into a data structure of the following form:

$array_1[1];$array_2[1];$array_A[1]
$array_1[1];$array_2[1];$array_A[2]
$array_1[1];$array_2[1];$array_A[3]
$array_1[1];$array_2[1];$array_A[4]
$array_1[1];$array_2[1];$array_A[5]

$array_1[1];$array_2[2];$array_B[1]
$array_1[1];$array_2[2];$array_B[2]
$array_1[1];$array_2[2];$array_B[3]
$array_1[1];$array_2[2];$array_B[4]

$array_1[1];$array_2[3];$array_C[1]
$array_1[1];$array_2[3];$array_C[2]
$array_1[1];$array_2[3];$array_C[3]
$array_1[1];$array_2[3];$array_C[4]
...

I know how to loop over the elements of the arrays [i]. However, my problem is that I do not know how i can loop over _A, _B and _C. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Best regards

Philipp

some nice looping trouble...
no free lunch. just brute force.

Code:

#!perl

@array_1 = qw( ant bat cat dog emu );
@array_2 = qw( fox gnu hen ibis jay );
@array_A = qw( kiwi lion mink nene owl );
@array_B = qw( piq quail rat tern uakari );
@array_C = qw( vole wren yak zebu );

foreach $anum ( 0 .. $#array_1 ){
  foreach $bnum ( 0 .. $#array_A ){
    print "$array_1[$anum]:$array_2[$anum]:$array_A[$bnum]\n";
    }
  }

foreach $anum ( 0 .. $#array_1 ){
  foreach $bnum ( 0 .. $#array_B ){
    print "$array_1[$anum]:$array_2[$anum]:$array_B[$bnum]\n";
    }
  }

foreach $anum ( 0 .. $#array_1 ){
  foreach $bnum ( 0 .. $#array_C ){
    print "$array_1[$anum]:$array_2[$anum]:$array_C[$bnum]\n";
    }
  }

He posted this on another forum with a different description of the arrays. I suggested he learn hashes and complex data structures (and provided a link to some tutorials) as quickly as possible because this is torture and is an attempt to do something more than likely done better another way once he knows a bit more perl.

Thank you very much . I'll look into what you suggested and also learn more Perl (including hashes) as Kevin suggested here and elsewhere.