Perl Question: How do I remove an item from a hash?

Answer: Use the delete function.

The general syntax you need to use is shown here:

delete($hash_name{$key_name});

If you'd like more details and examples, read on...

A complete example

Here's a complete example where I show both how to create and print a Perl hash, and then show how to remove elements from the hash using the delete function:

#!/usr/bin/perl

#-------------------------------
# add items to the "prices" hash
#-------------------------------

$prices{"pizza"} = 12.00;
$prices{"coke"} = 1.25;
$prices{"sandwich"} = 3.00;

#---------------
# print the hash
#---------------

print "\nbefore:\n";
foreach $key (keys %prices)
{
  print "  $key costs $prices{$key}\n";
}


#------------------------------
# remove the coke from the hash
#------------------------------

delete($prices{"coke"});

#---------------
# print the hash
#---------------

print "\nafter:\n";
foreach $key (keys %prices)
{
  print "  $key costs $prices{$key}\n";
}

Output from the sample program

Here's what the output from this sample program looks like:

before:
  sandwich costs 3
  pizza costs 12
  coke costs 1.25

after:
  sandwich costs 3
  pizza costs 12

As you can see from the output, the coke element has been removed from the hash.