Not that I see how it's any "clearer" than a simple assignment, but you could always keep your key/value pairs in an @array and use push @array => name => "Bill" (then %hash = @array when you're all done).

Update: And another similar kinda crazy idea: store everything in a scalar in YAML format. Append new values onto to the scalar and then YAML::Load the result when you need the hash. 

use YAML ();
my $data = "--- #YAML/1.0\n";
$data .= <<'EOT';
somekey: somevalue
otherkey: othervalue
EOT;

$data .= "zorch: wubba";

my $hash = YAML::Load( $data );

[download]

In reply to Re: Adding to a hash? by Fletch
in thread Adding to a hash? by bradcathey

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.