Re: How do I find out if a hash is empty?

Preferably with if (!keys %hash) { print "Empty" }.

This has the drawback of actually going through fetching all the keys for a tied hash, but the alternative (if (!%hash) { print "Empty" }) doesn't work at all for tied hashes.

If tied hashes aren't a concern, either way will do, but there is a difference to be aware of: the keys version will reset the hash's iterator (see each) while the other way will leave it unchanged.

Comment on Re: How do I find out if a hash is empty? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Answer: How do I find out if a hash is empty? by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Nov 04, 2003 at 14:11 UTC
This has the drawback of actually going through fetching all the keys for a tied hash, but the alternative (`if (!%hash) { print "Empty" }`) doesn't work at all for tied hashes. Actually, using `!keys` is over 6x faster than using `!%hash`, and it does not get slower with a larger hash, so it is pretty clear that Perl does not have to iterate through all the keys to get the key count. Another way to do it would be to say `!each %hash` (which, of course, advances the iterator on non-empty hashes). However, the `keys` method is about twice as fast as that.	[reply] [d/l] [select]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re: Answer: How do I find out if a hash is empty?
by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Nov 04, 2003 at 14:11 UTC

This has the drawback of actually going through fetching all the keys for a tied hash, but the alternative (if (!%hash) { print "Empty" }) doesn't work at all for tied hashes.

Actually, using !keys is over 6x faster than using !%hash, and it does not get slower with a larger hash, so it is pretty clear that Perl does not have to iterate through all the keys to get the key count. Another way to do it would be to say !each %hash (which, of course, advances the iterator on non-empty hashes). However, the keys method is about twice as fast as that.

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]