$ perl -MData::Dumper=Dumper -lwe '$p={}; $p->{qw(fee fie foe)} = (1..3); print Dumper $p' $VAR1 = { 'feefiefoe' => '' }; $ perl -MData::Dumper=Dumper -lwe '$p={}; @p->{qw(fee fie foe)} = ( 1..3); print Dumper $p' Can't coerce array into hash at -e line 1.