June 2002
Beginner
759 pages
80h 42m
English
A hash is a set of key/value pairs. Hashes are
preceded by a percent sign (%).
To refer to a single element of a hash, you use the hash variable
name followed by the “key” associated with the value in braces.
For example, the hash:
%fruit = ('apples', 3, 'oranges', 6);has two values (in key/value pairs). If you want to get the
value associated with the key apples, you use $fruit{'apples'}.
It is often more readable to use the => operator in defining key/value
pairs. The => operator is
similar to a comma, but it’s more visually distinctive and quotes
any bare identifiers to the left of it:
%fruit = (
apples => 3,
oranges => 6
);