Given a hash we can easily create a list of all its keys and all its values by using the keys and values functions respectively.

How can we do the opposite?

How can we create a hash from an array of the future keys and an array of the future values?

Simple keys and values

examples/hash_from_two_arrays.pl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper qw(Dumper);

my @keys = ('one', 'two', 'three');
my @values = ('uno', 'dos', 'tres');

my %hash;

@hash{@keys} = @values;

print Dumper \%hash;

What you see here is hash slices in action.

The results:

examples/hash_from_two_arrays.txt

$VAR1 = {
          'three' => 'tres',
          'two' => 'dos',
          'one' => 'uno'
        };

Remember, the keys inside the hash are not in any particular order.

Values containing a list of array references

A slightly more complex case:

examples/hash_from_keys_and_array_refs.pl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper qw(Dumper);

my @keys = ('name1', 'name2', 'name3');
my @values = (['name11', 'name21', 'name31'], ['name12', 'name22', 'name32'], ['name13', 'name23', undef]);

my %hash;

@hash{@keys} = @values;

print Dumper \%hash;

And the results:

examples/hash_from_keys_and_array_refs.txt

$VAR1 = {
          'name3' => [
                       'name13',
                       'name23',
                       undef
                     ],
          'name2' => [
                       'name12',
                       'name22',
                       'name32'
                     ],
          'name1' => [
                       'name11',
                       'name21',
                       'name31'
                     ]
        };