Deleting Hash Entries while Iterating

rmalhotra has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question: ⭐ (hashes)

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Re: Deleting Hash Entries while Iterating⭐ by ariels (Curate) on Jun 27, 2002 at 13:06 UTC
I suggest that the docs for each may say just what you're asking. If just iterating over the list of keys of the hash (e.g. `foreach (keys %hash)`) then of course no limitations exist -- the list of keys is generated once at the start of the iteration, so deletion does nothing.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Deleting Hash Entries while Iterating by thelenm (Vicar) on Jun 27, 2002 at 15:49 UTC
You may be interested in Adding or removing keys while iterating over a hash, which has some discussion on this topic.	[reply]
Re: Deleting Hash Entries while Iterating by davido (Cardinal) on Oct 06, 2003 at 23:05 UTC
You may iterate over the hash using each, deleting elements as you go, if you wish. The POD for each says, "You must not add elements to the hash while iterating over it, although you are permitted to use delete." Update: Please note that different versions of the POD have different comments regarding deleting elements while iterating using each. Camel II says "ok". Earlier versions of the POD say, "don't do it". And the POD for version 5.8.0 says, "It is always safe to delete the item most recently returned by each..."	[reply]