#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Tie::IxHash;
 
my %hash = %{ &fooFunc(); };
 
print "Compare this order to insertion order of fooFunc:\n\n";
foreach (keys %hash)
{
        print $hash{$_}."\n";
}
 
print "\n";
 
sub fooFunc
{
        tie my %h, "Tie::IxHash";
 
        $h{'donald'} = 'duck';
        $h{'calvin'} = 'human';
        $h{'hobbes'} = 'tiger';
        $h{'mickey'} = 'mouse';
        $h{'zorak'}  = 'bug';
 
        return \%h;
}

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What I'm doing is having a hash which can give me out stuff in the same order I put it in (using Tie::IxHash). However, when I return a tied hash (to Tie::IxHash) from a subroutine, the hash won't remember the insertion order, but returns the keys apparently semirandomly, like an ordinary hash.

What am I doing wrong and how could I go round that? I'd like to have the hash returned from a subroutine, since it's used an arbitrary number of times.

The Tie::IxHash tied hash works properly inside the subroutine, but not when the reference is used. I've also tried to bless it again to Tie::IxHash but couldn't get it to work.

From the above example you see that in main the key/value pairs are not returned in the same order as put in, at least not for me. I'm using Perl 5.005_3 since our company hasn't made an official stance to take Perl 5.6 into use yet (plenty of scripts to check).

In reply to Reference to hash tied with Tie::IxHash doesn't remember insertion order by Anonymous Monk

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