in reply to modifie the first set of keys in a hash

probably you means you want modify values, not keys. You can access every key within an hash using keys values using values and both using each

Modifying one key name in a hash does not make much sense to me and must be done copying the original to a new one and delete the original key, like in:

$hash{'new_key'} = $hash{'key'}; delete $hash{'key'};

L*

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Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.