Can I initialize/clear a hash reference?

slloyd has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

If I have the following hash: my %hash=(a=>1,b=>2); I can initialize/clear out the hash by doing: %hash=(); So if I pass a hash to a sub as a reference, is there a way to initialize/clear the hash using the reference?

my %hash=(a=>1,b=>2);
my $x=&foo(\%hash);

sub foo{
    my $h=shift; #hash reference
    #I want to clear out the hash here...
    $h->{c}=5;
    return 1;
    }
[download]

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Re: Can I initialize/clear a hash reference? by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Feb 25, 2005 at 04:51 UTC
`sub foo { my $h = shift; %$h = (); $h->{'c'} = 5; 1; }` [download] After Compline, Zaxo	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Can I initialize/clear a hash reference? by davido (Cardinal) on Feb 25, 2005 at 04:52 UTC
This will do it: `sub foo { my $href = shift; %{$href} = (); $href->{c} = 5; return 1; }` [download] You just have to dereference the hashref as an entire hash entity. Dave	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Can I initialize/clear a hash reference? by slloyd (Hermit) on Feb 25, 2005 at 05:10 UTC
My thanks to both of you who replied.	[reply]