Bug #35532 for Tie-Hash-MultiValue: Re: Tie::Hash::MultiValue question

Okay: I have both a definitive answer and a new alternative API. When you've tied a hash, every call to FETCH occurs in scalar context. This makes sense, since hashes prototypically only store scalar values. However, this means this it just isn't possible at all to return an array directly from a hash fetch ( $hash{$key} ). You therefore have to choose one of two methods: - get an anonymous array back and iterate over it - have the tied class iterate over the stored values, returning them one at a time until you've seen them all. I've updated the most recent version of the code to add the built-in iterator option. The default is to be in 'refs' mode, which always returns a reference to the list of items in the hash entry. Putting the tied hash into 'iterators' mode lets you do the 'fetch values repeatedly until there are no more' version. It looks like the assumption that accessing a hash element always occurs in scalar context is wedged way down inside Perl; one might be able to patch around it, but I'm not sure it's worth doing that much work (and potentially introducing bugs in other stuff that assumes that context doesn't matter for hash fetches). So I'll upload 1.0 with the new 'iterators' stuff and close this as 'fixed', since there's not a "this is the best compromise we can make but doesn't really fix it" resolution. :)