use strict; use warnings; my %bucket = ( key1 => { '1' => 3}, key2 => { '1' => 3, '2' => 2}, key3 => { '1' => 11, '2' => 36} ); my %spair = (); my $cnt =0; foreach my $kmer ( keys %bucket ) { foreach my $si (keys %{$bucket{$kmer}}) { foreach my $sn (keys %{$bucket{$kmer}}) { next if exists $spair{$sn."-".$si}; if ( $si == $sn ) { $cnt = $bucket{$kmer}{$si}; } else { $cnt = $bucket{$kmer}{$si}*$bucket{$kmer}{$sn}; } $spair{$si."-".$sn} +=$cnt; } } # ----- end foreach ----- } # ----- end foreach ----- use Data::Dumper; print Dumper \%spair; #### $VAR1 = { '1-1' => 17, # 3+3+11 '2-2' => 38, # 2+36 '1-2' => 402 # (3*2)+(11*36), this is correct already }; #### $VAR1 = { '1-1' => 3, #wrong '2-2' => 2, #wrong '1-2' => 402 #correct };