Hi,

I would like to initialize %hash with two keys: $hash{"COUNTS"} will point to an array of size $length all initialized with 0's. $hash{"LISTS"} will point to an array of size $length, where each element is an empty list (so I can push into it).

I know how to achieve that using lopping, creating temporary structures and referencing to them, but I'm quite sure there's a more elegant solution. for example, I think that $hash{"COUNTS"} can be initialized using:

$hash{"COUNTS"}=[(0) x $length] OR $hash{"COUNTS"}=[0 x $length]

I'm not sure if the braces around the zero have any effect. Do they mean a singleton with zero in it? If I want a simple scalar, should I omit them? And how should i initialize $hash{"LISTS"}? Maybe something like

$hash{"LISTS"}=[() x $length]

thanks!

In reply to Newbies question: initializing data structure by roibrodo

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