Renaming a Hash key

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

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Re: Renaming a Hash key by bart (Canon) on Apr 13, 2005 at 14:25 UTC
No the closest you can get is `$hash{$new} = delete $hash{$old};` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Renaming a Hash key by inman (Curate) on Apr 13, 2005 at 14:36 UTC
A hash key isn't just a name, it is used to calculate the location of the value. If you could change the name then you would effectively be copying and deleting. Why do you want to rename the key? Copying the value of a hash element into a new one isn't a problem. More complicated structures use a reference as the hash value. The referant stays where it is. This example is for a hash of lists. `my %hash = (tom => ['sally', 'dave', 'jennie'], bertie => ['jean']); $hash{paul} = delete $hash{tom}; foreach (keys %hash) { print "$_ @{$hash{$_}}\n"; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Renaming a Hash key by tlm (Prior) on Apr 13, 2005 at 14:25 UTC
Think about it for a second: the hash key determines unambiguously the hash bucket where the value will be stored. This relationship is fixed. Different keys, almost always, point to different locations in storage; that's the whole idea behind hash tables. the lowliest monk	[reply]
Re: Renaming a Hash key by gellyfish (Monsignor) on Apr 13, 2005 at 14:19 UTC
Not from Perl code no. /J\	[reply]
Re: Renaming a Hash key by rev_1318 (Chaplain) on Apr 13, 2005 at 14:22 UTC
No, you cannot rename a hash key. Paul	[reply]