note afoken <p>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_optimization#When_to_optimize|Premature optimization is the root of all evil]. Just don't do that. Perl will handle allocation good enough most of the times. There may be rare cases where preallocation may be useful, but then, you would use [mod://Devel::NYTProf] or similar first to find and eliminate other bottlenecks.</p> <p>To save keystrokes, use <c>my %hash=();</c> or just <c>my %hash;</c>, both are technically equal. Some people (including me) prefer the first form, refusing to rely on the implementation details of Perl to initialize the variable with an empty hash / empty array / undefined scalar, other people think that the documentation is very clear on this fact and the initializing assignment is just too much and redundant work.</p> <p>Alexander</p> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-747201"> --<br> Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-) </div></div> 862100 862100