#!/usr/bin/perl use Data::Dumper; my %roster; @jid= qw |test1 test2 test3 test4|; foreach $jid (@jid) { $roster{$jid} = "0"; } foreach $jid (@jid) { print Dumper ($roster{$jid}); } @keys = keys %roster; print "Keys: @keys\n"; $jid = "test1"; if ($roster{$jid}) { print "something"; }