my %hash = ( somekey => somevalue, ...); #### #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Data::Dumper; my %w = ( Sub => { 'rbscells' => 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-1', 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-2', 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-3' } ) ; print Dumper(%w); #### $VAR1 = 'Sub'; $VAR2 = { 'rbscells' => 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-1', 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-2' => 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-3' }; #### ... 'rbscells' => [ 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-1', 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-2', 'UtranCell=RNC16-4-3' , ] ... #### foreach my $element (@{$w{Sub}->{rbscells}}) { print $element . "\n"; }