Ooh, it depends on what you mean by 'the first 3'. Key-value pairs in Perl aren't stored in any workable order - you're not *guarenteed* to get them out in the order you put them in. So if your question is, "How do I remove the first three I put in?", the answer is, "Don't put them in to begin with!" Seriously, to give you at least one useful answer, perhaps you don't care about the order, and the first three you get will be fine? Try something like: 
%test = (
    a => 1,    b => 2,    c => 3, d => 4, e => 5,
    f => 6,    g => 7,    h => 8, i => 9, j => 10,
);

delete $test{each( %test )};
delete $test{each( %test )};
delete $test{each( %test )};
print map "$_ : $test{$_}\n", keys %test;

[download]
...but don't rely on the order of 'each' - it could turn around and bite ya! Kris, (Also UK...)

In reply to Re: Hash manipulation by Anonymous Monk
in thread Hash manipulation by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.