in reply to Hash substitution

You can't change the key of a hash because the key decides how to find the data based on an algorithm.

You must instead move the value, easiest done this way: 

$hash{newkey} = delete $hash{oldkey};

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The delete removes the value from the old hash location and returns the value, allowing you to put it in the new hash location.

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Re^2: Hash substitution
by Narveson (Chaplain) on Oct 09, 2008 at 12:49 UTC 
    use Data::Dumper;

my %hash = (
    apple  => 'red',
    orange => 'orange',
    banana => 'yellow',
);
my $old_key = 'orange';
my $new_key = 'carrot';

$hash{$new_key} = delete $hash{$old_key};

print Dumper(\%hash);

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