my %sq_ds_uniq; for my $key (keys %sq_ds) { for my $key_uniq (keys %sq_ds_uniq) { ### This line is metacode last if $sq_ds{$key}{query} is like $sq_ds_uniq{$key_uniq}{query}; } $sq_ds_uniq{$key} = $sq_ds{$key}; }