What exactly do you mean by "not recognized"? Seems to work fine:

#!/usr/bin/perl

$something{'that\'s it'} = "foo";
$something{'thats it\!'} = "bar";

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper \%something;

__END__
$VAR1 = {
          'that\'s it' => 'foo',
          'thats it\\!' => 'bar'
        };
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My apologies, was in a rush when I wrote that.

I have a file foo.txt that contains a phrase such as "that's it!". I read the contents of the file, and use the filename (foo) as the value in a hash, with the key being the contents:

$key = "that's it!"; #contents from file foo.txt
$value = "foo"; #filename
$something{$key} = $value;
print $something{$key};
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When I try to print the above, nothing is there, however when I remove the ' and !, "foo" is printed. I will play with the suggestions in a short while however. Might realize it's just how I'm doing it. Thank you for the quick replies.

Maybe you should write some code that fails as you describe? Adding strictures (use strict; use warnings;) to your code and running it I get:

use strict;
use warnings;

my %something;
my $key = "that's it!"; #contents from file foo.txt
my $value = "foo"; #filename
$something{$key} = $value;
print $something{$key};
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which prints:

foo
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just as I would expect. Can you show me equivelent code that fails?

---

True laziness is hard work

FireBird34: Your subsequent post indicates your problem is resolved, but just for the record:

>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $key = \"that's it!\";
 my $value = \"foo\";
 my %something;
 $something{$key} = $value;
 print $something{$key};
 use Data::Dumper;
 print Dumper \%something;
"
foo
$VAR1 = {
          'that\'s it!' => 'foo'
        };
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Remember, the strings in your OP are single-quoted strings, and the  \ (backslash) has very limited function when used as an escape in a single-quoted string. In essence,  \ only escapes itself and  ' in such a string.

See the discussion of  '' and  q{} in the Quote and Quote like Operators section (and in Quote Like Operators) of perlop.

For example,

print 'that\'s it',    "\n";
print 'that\'s it\!',  "\n";
print 'that\'s it\\!', "\n";
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that's it         \ escapes the delimiter (')
that's it\!       \ wasn't followed by the delimiter (') or \
that's it\!       \ escapes \
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Contrast with double-quotes:

print "\"that's it!\"\n";
print "\"that's it\!\"\n";
print "\"that's it\\!\"\n";
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"that's it!"      \ escapes "
"that's it!"      \ escapes !
"that's it\!"     \ escapes \
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Problem was resolved. Problem turned out to be me. I didn't properly take into account the extra '. Stupid mistake :) Thank you for the help.

Always use strictures (use strict; use warnings; - see The strictures, according to Seuss).

---

True laziness is hard work