#! perl -slw use strict; use Internals qw[ SetReadOnly ]; my %set = map{ $_ => 1 } qw[ age old years ]; SetReadOnly( \$_ ) for values %set; ## Freeze values SetReadOnly \%set; ## and keys. for my $unknown ( qw[ age sex old young years minutes] ) { print "$unknown ", exists $set{ $unknown } ? 'exists' : ' does not exist'; } eval{ $set{ age } = 123 } or print $@; eval{ $set{ fred } = 1 } or print $@; __END__ C:\test>junk3 age exists sex does not exist old exists young does not exist years exists minutes does not exist Modification of a read-only value attempted at C:\test\junk3.pl line 17. Attempt to access disallowed key 'fred' in a restricted hash at C:\test\junk3.pl line 18.