http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=260774


in reply to [untitled node, ID 260676]

This is a different approach which may or may not suit your needs: 
my %types = ( 0 => 'male',
              1 => 'female',
              2 => 'robot' );
$this_user = $types{$some_value};

[download]
Or, if you are going to use the categories only one time, you can code them as an on-the-fly anonymous hash... 
$this_user = { 0 => 'male',
               1 => 'female',
               2 => 'robot'  }->{$some_value};

[download]
HTH, David

------------------------------------------------------------
"Perl is a mess and that's good because the
problem space is also a mess." - Larry Wall

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom