Assuming that the reason you don't want to execute the script is because the script contains other stuff besides the hash, then something like this might work. The regex is far from foolproof, but short of writing a Parse:RecDescent grammer to match perl, which is a very tall order, you might get away with the following (with a little tweaking as necessary).

It requires that none of the keys or values in the hash is likely to contain the sequence ');' and that the hash declaration is finished with that sequence. If that isn't true, then move on to the next idea:) 

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my $data = do{ local $/; <DATA> };

my %hash = eval "$1"
    if $data =~ m[
        \n%some_hash\s*=\s*
        (
        \( .* \);
        )
    ]sx;

print Dumper \%hash;

my %newHash;
for my $state (keys %hash ) {
    push @{ $newHash{ $_ } }, $state
        for split /\s*,\s*/, $hash{ $state }{colors};
}

print Dumper \%newHash;

__DATA__
Various other perl statements before the hash definition
Various other perl statements before the hash definition
Various other perl statements before the hash definition
Various other perl statements before the hash definition
Various other perl statements before the hash definition
Various other perl statements before the hash definition

%some_hash =
  (
    'NEW_YORK' =>
    { 'capital' => 'Albany',
      'colors' => 'black, green, blue',
      'bird' => 'pigeon'
    },
    'MASSACHUSETTS' =>
    { 'capital' => 'Springfield',
      'colors' => 'red, white, blue',
      'bird' => 'turkey'
    }
  # etc
  );

Various other perl statements after the hash definition
Various other perl statements after the hash definition
Various other perl statements after the hash definition
Various other perl statements after the hash definition
Various other perl statements after the hash definition
Various other perl statements after the hash definition
Various other perl statements after the hash definition

[download]

Output

P:\test>277327
$VAR1 = {
          'MASSACHUSETTS' => {
                               'bird' => 'turkey',
                               'colors' => 'red, white, blue',
                               'capital' => 'Springfield'
                             },
          'NEW_YORK' => {
                          'bird' => 'pigeon',
                          'colors' => 'black, green, blue',
                          'capital' => 'Albany'
                        }
        };

$VAR1 = {
          'green' => [
                       'NEW_YORK'
                     ],
          'white' => [
                       'MASSACHUSETTS'
                     ],
          'black' => [
                       'NEW_YORK'
                     ],
          'blue' => [
                      'MASSACHUSETTS',
                      'NEW_YORK'
                    ],
          'red' => [
                     'MASSACHUSETTS'
                   ]
        };

[download]
Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." -Richard Buckminster Fuller

In reply to Re: sorting a hash that's in another file by BrowserUk
in thread sorting a hash that's in another file by alienhuman

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