perl -MData::Dumper -e " %h = ('Message2' => [ '0X026007' ], 'Message4' => [ '0X026005', '0X026006' ] ); foreach $k(keys %h) { delete $h{$k} if defined $h{$k}[1] } print Dumper(\%h) " $VAR1 = { 'Message2' => [ '0X026007' ] };