Are quotes around hash keys a good practice in Perl?
Is it a good idea to quote keys when using a hash in Perl?
I am working on an extremely large legacy Perl code base and trying to adopt a lot of the best practices suggested by Damian Conway in Perl Best Practices. I know that best practices are always a touchy subject with programmers, but hopefully I can get some good answers on this one without starting a flame war. I also know that this is probably something that a lot of people wouldn't argue over due to it being a minor issue, but I'm trying to get a solid list of guidelines to follow as I work my way through this code base.
In the Perl Best Practices book by Damian Conway, there is this example which shows how alignment helps legibility of a section of code, but it doesn't mention (anywhere in the book that I can find) anything about quoting the hash keys.
$ident{ name } = standardize_name($name);
$ident{ age } = time - $birth_date;
$ident{ status } = 'active';
Wouldn't this be better written with quotes to emphasize that you are not using bare words?
$ident{ 'name' } = standardize_name($name);
$ident{ 'age' } = time - $birth_date;
$ident{ 'status' } = 'active';
Answer
Without quotes is better. It's in {} so it's obvious that you are not using barewords, plus it is both easier to read and type (two less symbols). But all of this depends on the programmer, of course.