#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; 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"], ); print Dumper(%hash), "\n"; 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; } } print Dumper(%hash); __END__