It sounds like you're passing around a hash to various subroutines, when you want to pass a hash-reference. Passing a reference to a hash allows you to change the hash in a subroutine and have that change affect the rest of accesses to that hash. As an example: 
my %regular_hash = (
    question1 => 'How are you?',
    question2 => 'What is your name',
);

print $regular_hash{question1}; # prints 'How are you?'

change_question1(%regular_hash);

print $regular_hash{question1}; # still prints 'How are you?'

sub change_question1
{
    my %regular_hash = @_;
    $regular_hash{question1} = 'What is your mothers name?';
}

[download]
Now, if you were using a hash reference, you would be able to change the value: 
my $hash_rev = {   #notice the change of opening brace
    question1 => 'How are you?',
    question2 => 'What is your name',
};  # and the corresponding close

# and slightly different access methods
print $hash_ref->{question1}; # prints 'How are you?'

change_question1($hash_ref);

print $hash_ref->{question1}; # now prints 'What is your mothers name?
+'

sub change_question1
{
    my $hash_ref = shift @_;
    $hash_ref->{question1} = 'What is your mothers name?';
}

[download]
The difference is that Perl will pass its arguments by value, which means that it will create a copy of the data that you passed. However, when you pass a reference to a data-type, Perl passes the a memory location (similar to a pointer in C/C++). That memory location is a container for the values. So, when you change a value in the original container, it changes it everywhere. If that's not what you're doing, perhaps the code you're working with would help.

--
Ben

In reply to Re: Setting variables inside a hash: newbie question by bprew
in thread Setting variables inside a hash: newbie question by techgirl

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