Re: Re: More Sorted Business with Hashes

Hashes are inherently non-ordered

It is not correct. Hash can be made ordered. It is in perl FAQ: How can I always keep my hash sorted?

Comment on Re: Re: More Sorted Business with Hashes

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Re: Re: Re: More Sorted Business with Hashes by dws (Chancellor) on Dec 22, 2001 at 06:07 UTC
Sure, a tied hash can be kept ordered, by using an array, or some heavier-weight data structure, underneath it.	[reply]
Re (tilly) 3: More Sorted Business with Hashes by tilly (Archbishop) on Jan 03, 2002 at 05:50 UTC
The FAQ notwithstanding, the original statement is correct. Hash lookup algorithms produce fundamentally unordered results. Perl's hashes implement a concept properly called associative arrays. They are called hashes because that is how they work under the hood. Therefore native Perl hashes are not obviously ordered, and anything you run across in any language called a hash should be assumed to likewise be not obviously ordered.	[reply]