use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my @load_array = (0..9); my %load_number_hash = (); foreach(@load_array){ $load_number_hash{$_} = $_; } print Dumper \%load_number_hash; delete $load_number_hash{3}; print Dumper \%load_number_hash; %load_number_hash = (); print Dumper \%load_number_hash;