As everyone knows, the "default" variable $_ and array @_ have special and well-documented uses. In an idle moment I experimented with %_ using v5.6.1 and lo and behold found that is was indeed predefined and worked as I kind of expected; e.g.

%_ = ( a => 1, b => 2 );

$_{ FRED } = "bert";

and so on like any other hash. However, I can trace no documentation about it. How can I check if it will remain a supported feature? I hope so, because it seems the perfect alternative to global ids to store such information in a predefined data dictionary which is what %_ seems to be for if I had to guess its purpose.

Thanks to all,

Simon Clinch

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