Another Way To Do It - an array_ref of hashes:

$countryMap = [
    {
        shortcountry => 'US',
        country => 'USA',
        currency => 'USD',
    },
    {
        shortcountry => 'D',
        country => 'Germany',
        currency => 'DM',
    },
    ....
];
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This is basically a flatfile db in memory - and can be easily saved to a file using Data::Dumper. The problem is getting the data out. I don't see a single step way to do this, but hey, we're optimising for developer time here, not cpu / memory. I'd do

sub getem {
    my $data = shift;
    my $find = shift;
    my $in = shift;
    my $return = shift;

    for (@$data) {
        if ($_->{$in} eq $find) {
            return $_->{$return};
        }
    }
}
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Then to find 'US' with 'USA',

my $result = getem($countryMap,'US','country','shortcountry');
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§ George Sherston