use 5.010; sub foo { my ($a, $b) = @_; sort grep { state %seen; $seen{$_}++ } keys %$a, keys %$b } my %a = ( a => 1, b => 2, c => 3 ); my %b = ( b => 2, c => 1, d => 4 ); say join ' ', foo(\%a, \%b); say join ' ', foo(\%a, \%b); __END__ b c a b b c c d