A feature I find useful in Perl is its multidimensional hash support. It's a great way for reconciling reports from different sources. Here is a Perl idiom I use often: -

my %hash;
$hash{A}{A} = 1;
$hash{A}{B} = 2;
$hash{B}{A} = 4;
$hash{B}{B} = 8;

foreach my $k (keys %{$hash{B}}) {
    print "$k - $hash{B}{$k}\n";
}
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Here is how one might achive the same thing in C++. The syntax will improve with the advent of Lambda expressions in C++09 spec. These remind me of Perl's map and stack ($_) idioms.

#include <map>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

void main() {

    map<string, map<string, int>> hash;
    hash["A"]["A"] = 1;
    hash["A"]["B"] = 2;
    hash["B"]["A"] = 4;
    hash["B"]["B"] = 8;
    
    for(map<string, int>::iterator i = hash["B"].begin(); i != hash["B
+"].end(); i++) {
        cout << i->first << " - " << i->second << "\n";
    }
}
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I was a little surprised to find C# does not make it very easy to use multidimensional hash tables. A few more seasoned C# programmers suggested using Generics. What is particularly unfriendly is the need to allocate and cast nested Hashtables. Perhaps, this is something Microsoft might fix in .NET version 4?

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Hashtable hash = new Hashtable(); 
            hash.Add("A", new Hashtable()); 
            ((Hashtable)hash["A"]).Add("A", 1);
            ((Hashtable)hash["A"]).Add("B", 2);
            hash.Add("B", new Hashtable()); 
            ((Hashtable)hash["B"]).Add("A", 4);
            ((Hashtable)hash["B"]).Add("B", 8);

            foreach (string k in ((Hashtable) hash["B"]).Keys)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(k + " - " + ((Hashtable) hash["B"])[
+k]);
            }
        }
    }
}
[download]

Interestingly, Perl 6 only improves on version 5 slightly: -

my %hash;
%hash{"A"}{"A"} = 1;
%hash{"A"}{"B"} = 2;
%hash{"B"}{"A"} = 4;
%hash{"B"}{"B"} = 8;
    
for %hash{"B"}.kv -> $key, $value { 
    say "$key - $value" 
}
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Update: There is an alternative way in C# using the Dictionary template. This does away with the need to cast.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, int>> hash2 = new Di
+ctionary<string,Dictionary<string,int>>();
            hash2.Add("A", new Dictionary<string, int>());
            hash2["A"].Add("A", 1);
            hash2["A"].Add("B", 2);
            hash2.Add("B", new Dictionary<string, int>());
            hash2["B"].Add("A", 4);
            hash2["B"].Add("B", 8);

            foreach (string k in hash2["B"].Keys)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(k + " - " + hash2["B"][k]);
            }
        }
    }
}
[download]

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