Perl:

           my (%record) = ();

           $record{'id'}   = 419;
           $record{'time'} = time();
           $record{'name'} = "Quentin";

   C:

           struct record
           {
                int    id;
                time_t time;
                char   name[8];
           } a_record;

           a_record.id   = 419;
           a_record.time = time();
           strcpy (a_record.name, "Quentin");