my %foo = ( 'bar' => {'baz' => 1} ); print $foo{'baz'}->{'bar'} || 'oops'; #### my %foo = ( 'bar' => undef ); print $foo{'bar'}->{'baz'} || "oops"; #### local $_ = "0A72656B636148206C72655020726568746F6E41207473754A"; while(s/..$//) { print chr(hex($&)) }