I would consider it a very poor practice, to hard-code data into a program.

As has been suggested before, saving the data in XML would buy you a whole lot of data independence, extensibility, and functionality - you get built-in Xpath, searches, and data validation using XML modules.

You may encounter resistance based on ignorance, but I encourage you to learn XML if necessary - there is no down-side. Here is a sample based on your requirements: 

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<AllEmployees>
  <emp name="Mike"  age    = '27'
     phone  = '213.xxx.xxxx'
     email  = 'xxx@xxx.xxx'>
     <skills>
       <computerlanguage name= "python" skilllevel='5'>
       <computerlanguage name= "java"   skilllevel='2'>
       <computerlanguage name= "python" skilllevel='5'>
       <speciality name='bioinformatics'>   
       <speciality name='biochemistry'>
     </skills>
   </emp>

   <emp name='Cindy' age='23' ....etc
    <skills>
      ...etc...
     </skills>
    </emp>
    ...etc

</AllEmployees>

[download]

In reply to Re: Building a hash of employees. by NetWallah
in thread Building a hash of employees. by DigitalKitty

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