If the Keys are very small, yet the values are large strings, why not put the string values in an array, then store the array indices under your keys? 

my @big_strings = (
    'War and peace',
    'The Lord of the rings',
    'PI, to plenty of decimal places',
);
my %keys = ( # give index into big_strings
    [a, b, c] => [1, 2],
    [b, d]    => [0, 2],
);

[download]

your use of something looking like lists, for 'keys' troubles me somewhat. What are you actually trying to achieve here? Is this perhaps an X-Y problem? When you walk up to your hash with a 'key' will that key be 'a' or a list a,c,g ?

Cheers,
R.

Pereant, qui ante nos nostra dixerunt!

In reply to Re: Minimize Hash Key Value Combinations by Random_Walk
in thread Minimize Hash Key Value Combinations by AlexTape

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