...this means the hash %array looks like this: %array = ( 'a' => [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' ], 'b' => [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' ], 'c' => [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' ], 'd' => [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' ], ) ;