Create a reverse hash: %by_value = reverse %by_key; $key = $by_value{$value}; That's not particularly efficient. It would be more space-efficient to use: while (($key, $value) = each %by_key) { $by_value{$value} = $key; } If your hash could have repeated values, the methods above will only find one of the associated keys. This may or may not worry you. #### package SpecialHash; use Tie::Hash; @SpecialHash::ISA = qw/Tie::StdHash/; sub FETCH { $_[1] eq "FLIPPED" ? { reverse %{ $_[0] } } : $_[0]->{$_[1]}; } package main; tie my %hash, 'SpecialHash'; @hash{ qw/foo bar/ } = qw/baz quux/; use Data::Dumper; print Dumper $hash{FLIPPED};