use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dump::Streamer; my %foo = (a => 'b', c => 'd'); my @stack; my %newFoo = (x => 'b', y => 'd'); push @stack, {%foo}; %foo = %newFoo; print "Using \%newFoo\n"; Dump (\%foo); # do stuff with temporary foo %foo = %{pop @stack}; print "restored original \%foo\n"; Dump (\%foo);