#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; use List::Util qw(first); my $var = 'apple'; my $h_ref = { banana => 1, plum => 1, apple => 1, strawberry => 1, pea => 1, }; my $foo = first { $_ eq $var } keys %{$h_ref}; defined $foo ? print "yes" : print "No";