That works great for simple hashes, but if you have a complex data structure you'll definitely want to check out Hash::Merge

This is what I would definitely use for complex structure, as I would have different rules for certain keys at different depth levels.

As for simple merge, I tend to use the opposite of what GrandFather uses. My target hashes are mostly new initialized ones, and the the source is taken as custom values that override the default. So I just stuff source into target. Because the source hash is actually a reference, it will be dereferenced.

sub some_meth {
  my($self, $source) = @_;
  my %target = (
    key1 => 'default_1',
    key2 => 'default_2',
    keyN => 'default_N',
    %$source,
  );
  # do somethings with %target
}
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Of course, GrandFather's technique can be applied as well. And I can see an advantage to have a chance to check the source prior to merging.

my %target = (
  # initialization
);
%target{keys %$source} = values %$source
  if defined $source && ref $source eq 'HASH';
[download]

---

Open source softwares? Share and enjoy. Make profit from them if you can. Yet, share and enjoy!

For simple hashes, what's wrong with just:

my %target = (
  #initialize
); 

%target = (%target, %source)
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? (with the issues of complex cases, source checking, and dereferencing aside (but perhaps fixable))

jason.

Unless I'm mistaken, both 'keys' and 'values' will make Perl gather up all the elements of each into temporary lists before even attempting to assign them. If %source is really huge, then that could be a problem?

If I thought memory use was a concern I'd walk the key values instead.

while (my($key, $value) = each %source) { $target{$key} = $value }
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But I imagine Perl is pretty good at handling temporary lists, so I doubt looping through the keys would be as fast.

Update

... and just for fun

Update Again (used the wrong target in the benchmark)

cmpthese( -1, {
   grandfather => sub {
        my %t = %target;
        @t{keys %source} = values %source;
    },
   sleepyjay   => sub {
       my %t = %target;
       %t = ( %t, %source );
    },
   ruzam => sub {
       my %t = %target;
       while ( my($key, $value) = each %source) {
#           $target{$key} = $value   <-- oops!
            $t{$key} = $value 
       }
   },
});

__END__

              Rate   sleepyjay       ruzam grandfather
sleepyjay    905/s          --        -58%        -61%
ruzam       2162/s        139%          --         -8%
grandfather 2349/s        160%          9%          --
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sub merge_hashes {
    my ($x, $y) = @_;

    foreach my $k (keys %$y) {
        if (!defined($x->{$k})) {
            $x->{$k} = $y->{$k};
        } else {
            $x->{$k} = merge_hashes($x->{$k}, $y->{$k});
        }
    }
    return $x;
}
[download]