Assuming the data you provided, the next loop will create a new hash with extended arrays. This algorithm assumes that the groups will be resolved in sorted order (group2 will depend only on group1, group3 on 1/2, ...).
my %expanded;
for my $group (sort keys %HoA) {
my %seen;
$expanded{$group} = [
grep {not $seen{$_}++}
map {exists $expanded{$_} ? @{$expanded{$_}} : $_}
@{$HoA{$group}}
];
print "$group: @{ $expanded{$group} }\n"
}
which prints:
group1: user1 user2
group2: user1 user2 user3
group3: user1 user2 user3
group4: user1 user2 user3
, , :
my %HoA = (
group1 => [ "user1", "user2" ],
group2 => [ "group1", "user3" ],
group3 => [ "group1", "group2" ],
group4 => [ "user5", "group5" ],
group5 => [ "group3", "user2" ],
);
my @to_expand = keys %HoA;
my %final;
my $tries = @to_expand;
to_expand: while (@to_expand and $tries) {
my $next = shift @to_expand;
my (@users, @groups);
for (@{ $HoA{$next} }) {
if (/^group/) {
push @groups, $_;
} else {
push @users, $_;
}
}
for my $group (@groups) {
if (exists $final{$group}) {
push @users, @{$final{$group}}
} else {
$tries--;
push @to_expand, $next;
next to_expand;
}
}
$tries++;
my %seen;
$final{$next} = [grep {not $seen{$_}++} @users];
}
if (@to_expand) {
print "error with groups: @to_expand\n";
}
for (sort keys %final) {
print "$_: @{$final{$_}}\n";
}
:
group1: user1 user2
group2: user3 user1 user2
group3: user1 user2 user3
group4: user5 user2 user1 user3
group5: user2 user1 user3
(, group3 5), :
error with groups: group4 group5 group3
group1: user1 user2
group2: user3 user1 user2
, .