ok, ok, I know, the following looks much like 'baby perl' but works fine for me when I need something like described above 
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use strict;
$|++;

my $input = 1;
my %myhash;
my @mykeys;
my $key;

print "enter names and values!\nleave name field emtpy and press 'Ente
+r' when complete";
while ($input)
{
    print "\nname :";
    $input = <STDIN>;
    if ($input)
    {
        chop $input;
        next if (!$input);
        print "name already assigned" and $input=1 and next if ($myhas
+h{$input});
        while (!$myhash{$input})
        {
            print "value :";
            $myhash{$input} = <STDIN>;
            chop $myhash{$input};
        }
        
    }
}

print "\n\nresults\n=======\n";
@mykeys = keys %myhash;
foreach $key (@mykeys)
{
    print "name :".$key." value: ".$myhash{$key}.". .\n";
}

[download]
But all suggestions for improvement are very welcome. See, why I've choosen this name? :-)

In reply to RE: populate a hash, with limits set by user? by little
in thread populate a hash, with limits set by user? by Anonymous Monk

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