#!/usr/bin/perl -w my %termservers = ( TERM192_168_0_1 => { CE_36xx101 => "PORT_2047", CE_36xx122 => "PORT_2060", CE_36xx124 => "PORT_2062" }, TERM192_168_0_2 => { CE_26xx103 => "PORT_2012", CE_26xx109 => "PORT_2014" } ); foreach my $key (keys %termservers) { print "1 $key \n"; #works# print "2 $termservers{$key}\n"; #prints hash_ref# print "3", keys({%termservers{$key}}), "\n"; #doesn't work# };