use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my @fields = qw( name email ); my %results; print "Before: ", Dumper(\%results); @results{@fields} = (); print "After: ", Dumper(\%results); __END__ Before: $VAR1 = {}; After: $VAR1 = { 'email' => undef, 'name' => undef };