Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!sid From: sid@think.com (Sid Stuart) Subject: A question on associative arrays Message-ID: <1991May30.134223.23225@Think.COM> Originator: sid@grub.think.com Sender: news@Think.COM Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA Distribution: na Date: Thu, 30 May 91 13:42:23 GMT I am writing a Perl application in which I would like to store into an associative array only if an entry for that key does not exist. The problem is I may come up with duplicate keys and I don't want to overwrite the contents of an entry. Is there a cheap way to find out if a key is in use? By cheap I mean other than using the functions "keys" or "each" to search through all the keys of the array. Thanks for the time, Sid Stuart sid@think.com -- Sid Stuart, Thinking Machines Corp. sid@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!sid