use PadWalker qw(peek_my); do "xyz"; #this file has many hashrefs defined foreach $item (keys %{peek_my(0)}) { print $item,"\n"; print $item if (ref $item eq ref {}); } #### $a1 = { 'p' => 1, 'q' => 2, }; $a2 = { 'p' => 1, 'q' => 2, };