Perl Associative Arrays
What is an associative array?
- Associative Arrays add the final degree of complexity
allowing ordered lists to be associated with other values.
Unlike list arrays,
associative arrays have index values
that are not numbers. You do not reference an
associative array as $associative_array_name[0] as you
did for the list array. Instead, associative arrays are
indexed with arbitrary scalar variables.
Consider the
following associative array definition:
%CLIENT_ARRAY = ('full_name', 'Selena Sol',
'phone', '213-456-7890',
'age', '27');
- In this example, we have defined the associative array
%CLIENT_ARRAY to have three sets of associations.
| The percent sign (%) denotes the associative
array name just as the dollar sign ($) did for
variables and the at sign (@) did for list arrays. |
- Thus, "full_name" is associated with "Selena Sol" as "age"
is associated with "27". This association is discussed in
terms of "keys" and "values". Each key is associated with
one value. Thus, we say that the key "full_name" is
associated with the value "Selena Sol".
Additional Resources:
Deleting and replacing list elements with the splice function
Table of Contents
Accessing an Associative Array
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