use Data::Dumper; #### $ perl -MO=Deparse test.pl Global symbol "%count" requires explicit package name at test.pl line 11. Global symbol "%count" requires explicit package name at test.pl line 14. test.pl had compilation errors. use Data::Dumper (my %count); use warnings; use strict 'refs'; open FILE, 'test.log'; while (defined($_ = )) { my(@fields) = split(' ', $_, 0); 'count'->{$fields[1]}++; } print Dumper(\(%{'count'}));