#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my %hash1 = ( foo => { 'a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3 }, bar => { 'd' => 1, 'e' => 2, 'f' => 3 }, ); my %hash2 = ( blah => { 'm' => 1, 'd' => 2, 'a' => 3 }, asdf => { 'z' => 1, 'l' => 2, 'b' => 3 }, ); for my $outer_key ( keys %hash1 ) { for my $inner_key ( keys %{ $hash1{$outer_key} } ) { my ($h2_outer, $h2_inner) = Find_Key( $inner_key , \%hash2 ); if ( $h2_inner ) { # do something : $outer_key, $inner_key, $h2_outer, and $h2_inner } else { # do your other thing } } } sub Find_Key { my ($match, $hash) = @_; for my $key ( keys %$hash ) { for ( keys %{ $hash->{$key} } ) { return ($key, $_) if $_ eq $match; } } return (undef, undef); }