$nestedhash = {
	'REJECTED'  => 'REJECTED',
	'FREQUENCY' => 'FREQUENCY',
	'INCOMING'  => {
				  'DIR' => 'DIR'
	},
	'CONNECTIONSTRING' => 'CONNECTIONSTRING',
	'REGEX' => 'REGEX',
	'EMAIL' => {
			   'GENERAL'    => 'GENERAL',
			   'CRITICAL'   => 'CRITICAL',
			   'SMTPSERVER' => 'SMTPSERVER'
	},
	'DIR' => ['DIR1', 'DIR2']
};

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = {
          'incoming' => {
                          'dir' => 'DIR'
                        },
          'frequency' => 'FREQUENCY',
          'regex' => 'REGEX',
          'rejected' => 'REJECTED',
          'dir' => [
                     'DIR1',
                     'DIR2'
                   ],
          'connectionstring' => 'CONNECTIONSTRING',
          'email' => {
                       'general' => 'GENERAL',
                       'critical' => 'CRITICAL',
                       'smtpserver' => 'SMTPSERVER'
                     }
        };

##</code><code>##

sub force_uc_hash {
	my $hashref = shift;
	foreach my $key (keys %{$hashref} ) {
		$hashref->{uc($key)} = $hashref->{$key};
		force_uc_hash($hashref->{uc($key)}) if ref $hashref->{$key} eq 'HASH';
		delete($hashref->{$key}) unless $key eq uc($key);
	}
}

sub force_lc_hash {
	my $hashref = shift;
	foreach my $key (keys %{$hashref} ) {
		$hashref->{lc($key)} = $hashref->{$key};
		force_lc_hash($hashref->{lc($key)}) if ref $hashref->{$key} eq 'HASH';
		delete($hashref->{$key}) unless $key eq lc($key);;
	}
}