use strict; # =) my %months = ( 'English'=> ['January', 'February' ... ], 'French'=> ['Janvier', 'Fevrier', ... ], 'Italian'=> ['gennaio', 'febbraio', ...], #etc ... ); #### # $language is set at run time and would be one of 'English', # 'Italian' etc. -- the keys of your $months hash # also assumes $month_number ranges from 1 to 12; if it's 0 to 11, eliminate the '-1' my $month_name = $month{$language}[$month_number-1];