#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my %hash = ( 'key1' => 'test1', 'key2' => 'test2', 'key3' => 'test2', ); print Dumper \%hash; $hash{'key4'} = delete $hash{'key1'}; print Dumper \%hash; __END__ $ perl test.pl $VAR1 = { 'key1' => 'test1', 'key3' => 'test2', 'key2' => 'test2' }; $VAR1 = { 'key2' => 'test2', 'key3' => 'test2', 'key4' => 'test1' };