c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -e "my %h = map { $_ => 0 } qw(kept notkept repaired); my $a = [ [ 'kept', '1', ], [ 'repaired', '3', ], ]; ;; dd \%h; %h = (%h, map @$_, @$a); dd \%h; " { kept => 0, notkept => 0, repaired => 0 } { kept => 1, notkept => 0, repaired => 3 }