my %states_with_comments = grep { warn Dumper({"finally" => $_}); 1; } map { ((split /=/, $$_[0], 2)[1], 'hurray!') } grep { warn Dumper({"after filtering" => $_}); 1; } grep { $$_[2] } grep { warn Dumper({"second step is" => $_}); 1; } map { values %$_ } grep { warn Dumper({"first step is" => $_}); 1; } values %$db;