Re: Default Hash Key

[toolic]

Is there a way to define a default value for a hash?

I do not know. But, you could create a function to see if a key exists:

use warnings;
use strict;

my %description = (
   a => 'a vowel',
   b => 'a consonant'
);

print 'a is ', check(\%description, 'a'), "\n";
print 'b is ', check(\%description, 'b'), "\n";
print '~ is ', check(\%description, '~'), "\n";

sub check {
    my ($href, $key) = @_;
    return (exists $href->{$key}) ? $href->{$key} : 'not in the alphab
+et';
}

prints:

a is a vowel
b is a consonant
~ is not in the alphabet