If you are dead-set against Tie::IxHash, then you can always try this bit: 

use strict;
use warnings;
use Want;
sub create_ordered() {
    my (@keys,@values,%order);
    my $x=0;
    return sub : lvalue {
        if (want('LVALUE')) {
            if (!exists $order{$_[0]}) {
                $order{$_[0]} = $x++;
                push @keys, $_[0];
            }
            $values[$order{$_[0]}] = want('ASSIGN');
            lnoreturn;
        }
        elsif (want('RVALUE')) {
            rreturn @keys if wantarray;
            rreturn $values[$order{$_[0]}];
        }
        return;
    }
}


# sample use:
my $hash = create_ordered;
$hash->("first") = "one";
$hash->("second") = "two";
$hash->("third") = "three";
$hash->("fourth") = "four";
$hash->("second") = "tutu";
my @keys = $hash->();
foreach (@keys) {
    my $x = $hash->($_);
    print "$x\n";
}

[download]

However, this is *very* cumbersome to use. For instance, you can't delete keys and you can't hash-splice. You also need to be very careful about context. Is there any reason you can't bundle Tie::IxHash with your application? Or at least copy the source code, put it at the top of your script with an author credit?

In reply to Re: Hashes made to order by jryan
in thread Hashes made to order by John M. Dlugosz

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.