Print a hash in order

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

Hiya,

This is probably quite simple but I can't figure out why it does it...

I basically want to print the key-value pairs in the order they are written, but for some reason this does not happen.

%permissions = ('ATM_NO' => 'No access to ATMs',
                'ATM_R' => 'Read ATMs',
                'ATM_W' => 'Write ATMs',
                'ATM_M' => 'Modify ATMs',
                'ATM_D' => 'Delete ATMs',
                'ETM_NO' => 'No access to ETMs',
                'ETM_R' => 'Read ETMs',
                'ETM_W' => 'Write ETMs',
                'ETM_M' => 'Modify ETMs',
                'ETM_D' => 'Delete ETMs' );

while (($perm_name, $perm_desc) = each(%permissions))
{
    print "\nINSERT INTO permissions SET name='$perm_name', descriptio
+n='$perm_desc'\n";
}
[download]

prints out...

INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ATM_D', description='Delete ATMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ATM_W', description='Write ATMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ATM_M', description='Modify ATMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ETM_W', description='Write ETMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ETM_D', description='Delete ETMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ATM_NO', description='No access to A
+TMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ATM_R', description='Read ATMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ETM_NO', description='No access to E
+TMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ETM_M', description='Modify ETMs'
INSERT INTO permissions SET name='ETM_R', description='Read ETMs'
[download]

Why is it in that order? It doesnt appear to be related to the values or alphabetical in any way, it also seems to be consistent across other hashes as well. Sorting them will not work as an order different to the one written will be generated, does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for your time, dalton

Comment on Print a hash in order Select or Download Code

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Re: Print a hash in order by McDarren (Abbot) on Feb 15, 2006 at 15:17 UTC
If you need to preserve the insertion order, then you probably want Tie::IxHash Cheers, Darren :)	[reply]
Re: Print a hash in order by radiantmatrix (Parson) on Feb 15, 2006 at 16:01 UTC
Well, you could read the perlfaq question How can I make my hash remember the order I put elements into it ? Or, if your case is as simple as you've laid out, you could avoid the hash altogether: # arrays preserve order. => will be treated as a comma @permissions = ('ATM_NO' => 'No access to ATMs', 'ATM_R' => 'Read ATMs', 'ATM_W' => 'Write ATMs', 'ATM_M' => 'Modify ATMs', 'ATM_D' => 'Delete ATMs', 'ETM_NO' => 'No access to ETMs', 'ETM_R' => 'Read ETMs', 'ETM_W' => 'Write ETMs', 'ETM_M' => 'Modify ETMs', 'ETM_D' => 'Delete ETMs' ); my $index = 0; while ($index < $#permissions-1) { ($perm_name, $perm_desc) = @permissions[$index,$index+1]; print "\nINSERT INTO permissions SET name='$perm_name', descriptio +n='$perm_desc'\n"; $index += 2; } [download] Updates: 2006-02-15 : Thanks to rinceWind, salva, and wfsp for pointing out that I neglected to increment `$index`. blush It's fixed now. <-radiant.matrix-> A collection of thoughts and links from the minds of geeks The Code that can be seen is not the true Code I haven't found a problem yet that can't be solved by a well-placed trebuchet	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Print a hash in order by salva (Canon) on Feb 15, 2006 at 15:28 UTC
The order of the elements of a hash is undefined. You can use Tie::IxHash for a hash implementation that retains the order of its elements, but usually there are simpler ways to obtain the same result with perl builtins, for instance: `my @perm_names = qw(ATM_NO ATM_R ATM_W ATM_D ...); my %perms; @perms{@perm_names} = ( 'No access to ATMs', 'Read ATMs', 'Write ATMs', 'Modify ATMs', ... ); for (@perm_names) { print "\nINSERT INTO permissions SET name='$_', description='$perms{ +$_}'\n"; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Print a hash in order by bassplayer (Monsignor) on Feb 15, 2006 at 15:13 UTC
The order that values are entered into a hash are not relevant to how they are later retrieved. You cannot count on the order of hash keys or values. Your best bet is probably to `sort` on the keys before iterating through them. bassplayer	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Print a hash in order by ww (Archbishop) on Feb 15, 2006 at 15:19 UTC
dalton: The order of hash content is arbitrary. This snippet (from perldoc -q Hash) brushes the topic: How do I process an entire hash? Use the each() function (see "each" in perlfunc) if you don't care whether it's sorted: `while ( ($key, $value) = each %hash) { print "$key = $value\n"; }` [download] If you want it sorted, you'll have to use foreach() on the result of sorting the keys ... HTH, but the real bottom line is -- please read your documentation.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Print a hash in order by tweetiepooh (Hermit) on Feb 15, 2006 at 15:44 UTC
As others have pointed out, order in a hash is arbitary in normal usage. As it appears you are putting this data into a database why does it matter about the order unless the is some "hidden" sequence that makes it important. The queries used to retrieve that data can sort it for you.	[reply]