use List::Util qw( sum ); use YAML::Syck qw( Load ); my $hash = Load( do { local $/; } ); my $count = sum( map { scalar @{ $hash->{ $_ } } } keys %${hash} ); print $count, "\n"; __END__ foo: - A - B - C bar: - D - E baz: - F - G - H #### require 'yaml' hash = YAML::load( <