in reply to $var{'a',1,...}

You should learn to use the Data::Dumper module to do your investigation. It is one of the most important perl modules.

use Data::Dumper;

$var{ 'a', 1, 'b', 2 } = 1;
# ^ this statement builds a simple hash table, %var

print Dumper(\%var);

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This shows that the above is really...
$VAR1 = {
          'a1b2' => 1
        };

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: $var{'a',1,...}
by benizi (Hermit) on May 24, 2005 at 19:19 UTC

    Careful when using Data::Dumper to dump strings.

    use Data::Dumper;
$h{"a", 1, "b", 2} = 1;
$h{a1b2} = 2;
print Dumper \%h;

    [download]
    produces the counterintuitive:

    $VAR1 = {
          'a1b2' => 2,
          'a1b2' => 1
        };

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    But: 

    use Data::Dumper;
$h{"a", 1, "b", 2} = 1;
$h{a1b2} = 2;
$_ = Dumper \%h;
s/(\P{IsPrint})/"\\x{".sprintf "%04x}", ord $1/ge;
print

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    reveals: 
    $VAR1 = {
          'a1b2' => 2,
          'a\x{001c}1\x{001c}b\x{001c}2' => 1
        };

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    ("\x{001c}" eq "\034" eq chr(28) eq $; See first reply.)

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