use strict; my %hash1; my %hash2; my %hash3; my @data = (0 .. 5000); for (my $i = 0; $i < scalar(@data); $i++ ) { for (my $j = $i; $j < scalar(@data); $j++) { $hash1{ $data[$i] }{ $data[$j] } = 0; $hash2{ $data[$i] }{ $data[$j] } = 0; $hash3{ $data[$i] }{ $data[$j] } = 0; } } print "Finished building hashes\n"; while ( my( $key1, $val1 ) = each %hash1 ) { while ( my( $key2, $val2 ) = each %$val1 ) { die 'Autovivify' unless exists $hash1{ $key1 } and exists $hash1{ $key1 }{ $key2 }; print "$key1\t$key2\t$hash1{ $key1 }{ $key2 }\t$hash2{ $key1 }{ $key2 }\t$hash3{ $key1 }{ $key2 }\n"; } }