use Data::Dumper; my %words = ( 'hello' => 'world' ); print 'type a word: '; chomp( my $inData = <> ); print $words{$inData} //= "Key '$inData' doesn't exist.\n"; print Dumper \%words; #### type a word: Bonjour Key 'Bonjour' doesn't exist. $VAR1 = { 'hello' => 'world', 'Bonjour' => 'Key \'Bonjour\' doesn\'t exist. ' };