The only thing stopping it from being a hash is that some keys are repeated.
Stupid trick with a CPAN module: Tie::DxHash. Granted, that does more than you asked for, as it preserves insertion order. But, it does allow duplicate keys.

In reply to Re: my array is almost a hash, but keys are not unique. by bart
in thread my array is almost a hash, but keys are not unique. by Boldra

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