my $skip_users = &get_data; &print_data; sub get_data { my %skip_users; #build a hoh with userid and value. $skip_users{$skip_id}{$value}++; return(\%skip_users) } sub print_data { my %hoh = %$skip_users; next if ((exists $hoh{$user}) && (exists $hoh{$user}{$command})); }