use Data::Dumper; my $self = {}; @$self{qw/sec min hour mday mon year wday yday isdst/} = localtime(); print Dumper($self); __output__ $VAR1 = { 'isdst' => 0, 'yday' => 178, 'wday' => 5, 'mday' => 28, 'min' => 34, 'year' => 102, 'mon' => 5, 'hour' => 14, 'sec' => 25 };