unique items in array

In a DCT, I have multiple items that contain state values. In the PT, I need to create a metadata tag with a list of states. I want to read all the items that have state values and create an array of state values. I don't, however, want to have duplicate values in the array. Here's the perl code I have to create the array, but I don't know how to ensure that I don't have the same state value listed twice.

<iw_perl><![CDATA[
$regs1 = iwpt_dcr_value('dcr.Region.Region1');
for ($i=0; $i<15; $i++)
{
$reg1[$i] = iwpt_dcr_value('dcr.Region.Region1[$i]');

if ($reg1[0] eq 'ALL')
{

push@{regionarray},MA;
}
else
{

push @{regionarray},@reg1[$i];

}

}
$regs2 = iwpt_dcr_value('dcr.Region.Region2');
for ($i=0; $i<15; $i++)
{
$reg2[$i] = iwpt_dcr_value('dcr.Region.Region2[$i]');

if ($reg2[0] eq 'ALL')
{

push @{regionarray},IL,IN,MI,MN,OH,WI;
}
else
{
push @{regionarray},@reg2[$i];

}

}

if(iwpt_dcr_value('dcr.State') ne '')
{
for ($s=0; $s<43; $s++)
{
$state[$s] = iwpt_dcr_value('dcr.State[$s]');
push @{regionarray},$state[$s];
}
}

$regions = join ",", @regionarray;

]]></iw_perl>

All suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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Comments

Adam Stoller

Use a hash (associative array) rather than a [simple] array.
Note - you also seem to be using iwpt_dcr_value() in places where I think you want iwpt_dcr_list() - so I've taken the liberty of writing this the way I think you want it - as opposed to the way you showed it:<iw_perl>
my %regions;
my @regs = iwpt_dcr_list('dcr.Region.Region1');
foreach (@regs){
my $tmp = iwpt_dcr_value("$_");
if ($tmp eq 'ALL'){
$regions{MA}++;
# you might want to set or unset all the other possible values here
last; # I assume there's no reason to continue processing this loop if 'ALL' was found - yes?
}
else {
$regions{$tmp}++;
}
}
@regs = iwpt_dcr_list('dcr.Region.Region2');
foreach (@regs){
my $tmp = iwpt_dcr_value("$_");
if ($tmp eq 'ALL'){
$regions{$_}++ foreach qw(IL IN MI MN OH WI);
last; # same assumption as above
}
else {
$regions{$tmp}++;
}
}
@regs = iwpt_dcr_list('dcr.State');
$regions{iwpt_dcr_value("$_")}++ foreach(@regs);
# At this point, you should be able to use something like:
# foreach(sort(keys(%regions))){ ... }
# to loop through all the states/regions which were set by the previous sections of code
...
</iw_perl>
(Note: I did NOT test the above code, it may contain some syntactic errors - but I believe that it is essentially what you were asking for - at least I hope so.)

--fish
Senior Consultant, Quotient Inc.
http://www.quotient-inc.com

saumil

Hi,
using grep you can remove duplicate element from array.
i am giving you code, might be usefull for you.

@unique = grep { ++$count{$_} < 2 } @src;

Saumil Shah
Technical Associate
Mahindra and British Telecom
+0919819890479

SMB

Thanks for the code. It works great!!!

The only change I had to make was ("$_"). It only worked with single quotes. I created one big hash with all the values, then used only the keys for the metadata values.

Dwayne

The only change I had to make was ("$_"). It only worked with single quotes

Well, that makes sense. I don't see any single quotes around $_ in Ghoti's code, though, so I'm not sure why you had to "change" it.

Actually, you didn't need any quotes at all. In that instance, ($_) would have worked just as well (and is probably sligtly more efficient)

--

Current project: TS 5.5.2/6.1 W2K

gzevin

This is a RTFM for all of you guys - from Perl Cookbook:

4.6. Extracting Unique Elements from a List
Problem

You want to eliminate duplicate values from a list, such as when you build the list from a file or from the output of another command. This recipe is equally applicable to removing duplicates as they occur in input and to removing duplicates from an array you've already populated.
Solution

Use a hash to record which items have been seen, then keys to extract them. You can use Perl's idea of truth to shorten and speed up your code.
Straightforward

%seen = ();
@uniq = ();
foreach $item (@list) {
unless ($seen{$item}) {
# if we get here, we have not seen it before
$seen{$item} = 1;
push(@uniq, $item);
}
}

Faster

%seen = ();
foreach $item (@list) {
push(@uniq, $item) unless $seen{$item}++;
}

Similar but with user function

%seen = ();
foreach $item (@list) {
some_func($item) unless $seen{$item}++;
}

Faster but different

%seen = ();
foreach $item (@list) {
$seen{$item}++;
}
@uniq = keys %seen;

Faster and even more different

%seen = ();
@uniqu = grep { ! $seen{$_} ++ } @list;

Greg Zevin, Ph.D. Comp. Sc.
Independent Interwoven Consultant/Architect
Sydney, AU