OO Perl - An array as a class property

[pilsdumps]

I have a simple class to create an html table:

use strict;
 
package clTableMaker;
 
sub new 
{
  #constructor
  my ($class_name, $width, $border, $cellspacing, $cellpadding) = @_;
  my ($self) = {};
  bless ($self, $class_name);
 
  my @label = ();
  my @data = ();
  $self->{'_label'} = @label; #assign empty list
  $self->{'_data'} = @data;  #assign empty list
 
  return $self;
}
 
sub add_row
{
  #add a row of data to the table
  #fill the @label and @data
 
  push ($self->{'_label'}), $label);  #THIS DOES NOT WORK!
  push ($self->('_data'), $data);    #THIS DOES NOT WORK!
}
 

To use this class I want to create a new object and initialise the table width etc (this works fine), then I want to be able to add 2-column rows like this:

my $table = clTableMaker->new();
$table->add_row('this is label', 'this is data');
$table->add_row('this is label2', 'this is data2');
 

Once all rows have been added I will have a method to foreach the properties and generate an html row for each one.

The problem I'm having is that I can't get my head around how to add each row to the properties $self->{'_label'} and $self->{'_data'} using the add_row method. The pushes don't work and I'm assuming this is because I'm trying to push onto a scalar variable.

Can somebody show me how I might achieve this?

Thanks in advance,
Richard

[KevinADC]

instead of:

my @label = ();
my @data = ();
 
$self->{'_label'} = @label; #assign empty list
$self->{'_data'} = @data;  #assign empty list

try:

$self->{'_label'} = []; #reference to an annonymous array
$self->{'_data'} = []; #reference to an annonymous array
 

then instead of:

push ($self->{'_label'}), $label);  
push ($self->('_data'), $data);    
 

try:

push (@{$self->{'_label'}}), $label);  
push (@{$self->{'_data'}}), $data);
 

[pilsdumps]

Cheers that works perfectly.

Just needed to put in the extra bracket at the start:

push ((@{$self->{'_label'}}), $label);  
push ((@{$self->{'_data'}}), $data);
 

;)

[miller]

Or simplifying your code a little:

package clTableMaker;
 
use strict;
 
sub new {
    #constructor
    my ($class_name, $width, $border, $cellspacing, $cellpadding) = @_;
 
    my $self = bless {
        _label => [],
        _data  => [],
    }, $class_name;
 
    return $self;
}
 
sub add_row {
    #add a row of data to the table
    #fill the @label and @data
 
    push @{$self->{_label}}, $label;
    push @{$self->{_data}}, $data;
}
 

Be sure to read perldsc for a deeper understanding of complex data structures.

- Miller