Maybe I am wrong, but contrary to the others who have replied already, I think you are misinterpreting your problem (sorry if I misinterpreted you! :).

Do you want the following:

%hash = (
         g1 => [value1, value2, value3],
         g2 => [value4, value5, value6...]
);

[download]

i.e. do you want each key to have multiple values associated? If this is the case you need a reference to an array containing all the values (see perlref). You already have that situation in the example you give: g1 => [$start_date1,$end_date1], so, to concatenate more values, you will need a reference to an AoA (array of arrays). Again, sorry if I totally misinterpreted your problem, but if you think I am close, let me know and we will elaborate it a little more

citromatik

In reply to Re^3: can i concatenate various value to form a unique key by citromatik
in thread can i concatenate various value to form a unique key by Anonymous Monk

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.