On Wed, 2006-07-06 at 07:49 -0500, Ron Goral wrote: > Merely referencing a key in a hash sets it into the hash, though with a > value of undef.
No, it does not. You have to actually assign it a value for the key to appear. The value you assign it may be undef, but Data::Dumper will only show the key if it has been assign a value. The confusion arises because an expression like: $self->{file} may be undef because: 1. There is no such key 'file' in the hash. Or 2. The key is in the hash but set to undef. To remove a key from a hash, you must use delete. See `perldoc -f delete`. -- __END__ Just my 0.00000002 million dollars worth, --- Shawn "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." Aristotle * Perl tutorials at http://perlmonks.org/?node=Tutorials * A searchable perldoc is at http://perldoc.perl.org/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>