use Data::Dumper; foreach (qw/ one two three /) { $hash{$_} = "in hash: $_"; $array[$_] = "in array: $_"; } print Dumper(\%hash, \@array); $VAR1 = { 'one' => 'in hash: one', 'three' => 'in hash: three', 'two' => 'in hash: two' }; $VAR2 = [ 'in array: three' ];