A hash is like an array but the index can be text instead of a number. so when you write 
my %hash = (  key1 => 'value1',
              key2 => 'value2',
              key3 => 'value3',
              key3 => 'value3',
              key3 => 'value3',
              key1 => 'value3',

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the second time you do key1 => ... it will overwrite any earlier value of key1.

There will only ever be one value associated with each key, so when you 

foreach (sort keys %hash) {
   $hist{$_}++;
}

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each key will be unique, so the count will be one for each of them

You need to study hashes more. Perhaps perldsc will be of help

In reply to Re^6: perl sort issue while going through article at perl.com by FunkyMonk
in thread perl sort issue while going through article at perl.com by convenientstore

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