As the "helpful monk" in question, first let me point out that the ellipsis in my original answer was a link to the Hash Tutorials.

I also learn an awful lot from most of the answers on this site, regardless of the question. What prompted me to answer as I did was that the OP didn't try (or at least, didn't post) a single solution .

Had he said "I tried this and that, but there has to be a better way", I'd have been happy to give him an explicit answer or two. If he'd asked to be pointed to where he could learn more about manipulating hashes, I'd have pointed him and possibly given him hints towards the answer he needed.

But to show up and just say "How do I do foo?"... well, telling the OP without explaining guarantees he'll be back with another request for code without Googling, looking at the Turotials or the Q&A, or ...

(Mark Twain once said "It's better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." I keep telling myself I should practice this.)