my %hash=(); %hash=( ##keys between "" because of dots "M01.001" =>["M01.001"]' "M01.001.111" =>["M01.001.111"]' "M01.001.111.111" =>["M01.001.111.111"]' "M01.002" =>["M01.002"]' "M01.002.003" =>["M01.002.003"]' ) for my $k(sort keys %hash){ my $temp = reverse($k); $temp =~ s/^\d{3}\.?//; my $t= reverse ($temp); if (exists $hash{$t}){ $hash{$k}[1] += 1; } }