I am creating the hash with the keys only and no values.

That is not possible.    In Perl's hashes, all keys have a value, and conversely, all values have a key. 

            $mailhouse{$f4} = "";

[download]

Actually, you are assigning a string as a hash value, and then later on trying to use that string as an array reference which is not possible!    If you had strict enabled then Perl would have informed you of this mistake.

What you should be doing is assigning an anonymous array as your hash value: 

            $mailhouse{$f4} = [];

[download]

In reply to Re: A Hash that is giving me the ####s by jwkrahn
in thread A Hash that is giving me the ####s by hoffy

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.