#!/usr/bin/perl -- use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my %loadrel; for my $load ( qw/ a b c /){ for my $dept ( qw/ 1 2 3 / ){ $loadrel{$load} .= " $dept "; } } print Dumper( \%loadrel ); __END__ $VAR1 = { 'c' => ' 1 2 3 ', 'a' => ' 1 2 3 ', 'b' => ' 1 2 3 ' };