Re^3: What makes an array sorted and a hash unsorted?

[DStaal]

The point isn't that there is a way to sort them. It's whether you need to use it to guarantee the order you get: With an array you don't, with a hash you do.

And yes, may. But the point is on the array the order will not. You can be sure of that: That given the same input, you will get the same output. A hash intentionally does not guarantee that.

And no, sorting the keys does not make the hash sorted. It simply means you have a sorted array that can be used to access the hash in a sorted order.

[ikegami]

The point isn't that there is a way to sort them.

Of course you can. Just like array indexes are ordered in ascending numeric order, hash keys can be ordered in ascending lexical order.

You don't see people telling arrays that 5 sorts after 4. No, they change the key-value associations instead. You can do exactly the same thing with hashes. The difference is that people don't want to change the key-value associations for hashes.

Thus my conclusion: That hashes are unsorted isn't a property of hashes so much as of the way we use them.