NAME

Tie::RefHash - use references as hash keys

SYNOPSIS

    require 5.004;
    use Tie::RefHash;
    tie HASHVARIABLE, 'Tie::RefHash', LIST;
    tie HASHVARIABLE, 'Tie::RefHash::Nestable', LIST;

    untie HASHVARIABLE;

DESCRIPTION

This module provides the ability to use references as hash keys if you first tie the hash variable to this module. Normally, only the keys of the tied hash itself are preserved as references; to use references as keys in hashes-of-hashes, use Tie::RefHash::Nestable, included as part of Tie::RefHash.

It is implemented using the standard perl TIEHASH interface. Please see the tie entry in perlfunc(1) and perltie(1) for more information.

The Nestable version works by looking for hash references being stored and converting them to tied hashes so that they too can have references as keys. This will happen without warning whenever you store a reference to one of your own hashes in the tied hash.

EXAMPLE

    use Tie::RefHash;
    tie %h, 'Tie::RefHash';
    $a = [];
    $b = {};
    $c = \*main;
    $d = \"gunk";
    $e = sub { 'foo' };
    %h = ($a => 1, $b => 2, $c => 3, $d => 4, $e => 5);
    $a->[0] = 'foo';
    $b->{foo} = 'bar';
    for (keys %h) {
       print ref($_), "\n";
    }

    tie %h, 'Tie::RefHash::Nestable';
    $h{$a}->{$b} = 1;
    for (keys %h, keys %{$h{$a}}) {
       print ref($_), "\n";
    }

THREAD SUPPORT

the Tie::RefHash manpage fully supports threading using the CLONE method.

STORABLE SUPPORT

the Storable manpage hooks are provided for semantically correct serialization and cloning of tied refhashes.

RELIC SUPPORT

This version of Tie::RefHash seems to no longer work with 5.004. This has not been throughly investigated. Patches welcome ;-)

MAINTAINER

Yuval Kogman <nothingmuch@woobling.org>

AUTHOR

Gurusamy Sarathy gsar@activestate.com

'Nestable' by Ed Avis ed@membled.com