>perl -wMstrict -le "my %hash = ( one => { fee => 33, fie => 44, }, two => { foo => 2, bar => 3, baz => 4, }, ); my $k_n = keys %{ $hash{one} }; my $k_s = '' . %{ $hash{one} }; print $k_n; print $k_s, ' <--'; print scalar keys %{ $hash{two} }; print '' . %{ $hash{two} }; " 2 1/8 <-- 3 3/8 >perl -wMstrict -le "my %hash = ( one => { fee => 33, xyz => 44, }, two => { foo => 2, bar => 3, baz => 4, }, ); my $k_n = keys %{ $hash{one} }; my $k_s = '' . %{ $hash{one} }; print $k_n; print $k_s, ' <--'; print scalar keys %{ $hash{two} }; print '' . %{ $hash{two} }; " 2 2/8 <-- 3 3/8