Programming Perl, 4th Edition

values

values HASH
values ARRAY

This function returns a list consisting of all the values in the indicated HASH. The values are returned in an apparently random order, but it is the same order as either the keys or each function would produce on the same hash. Oddly, to sort a hash by its values, you usually need to use the keys function, so see the example under keys for that.

You can modify the values of a hash using this function because the returned list contains aliases of the values, not just copies. (In earlier versions, you needed to use a hash slice for that.)

for (@hash{keys %hash}) { s/foo/bar/g }   # old way
for (values %hash)      { s/foo/bar/g }   # now changes values

Using values on a hash that is bound to a humongous DBM file is bound to produce a humongous list, causing you to have a humongous process. You might prefer to use the each function, which will iterate over the hash entries one by one without slurping them all into a single gargantuan, er, humongous list.