%hash1 = ( key1 => "value1", key2 => "value2", key3 => "value3", key4 => "value4", key5 => "value5", ); @array = qw( key3 key4 ); $before = keys %hash1; foreach (@array){ delete($hash1{$_}); } $after = keys %hash1; print("$before\n"); # 5 print("$after\n"); # 3