>perl -wMstrict -le "use Data::Dumper; ;; { my @ra = qw/ worker@company.com manager@company.com /; sub AR { return \@ra; } } ;; my %services = ( service1 => { email => AR() }, service2 => { email => AR() }, ); ;; print Data::Dumper->Dump( [ \%services ], [qw/*services/] ); " %services = ( 'service1' => { 'email' => [ 'worker@company.com', 'manager@company.com' ] }, 'service2' => { 'email' => $services{'service1'}{'email'} } );