I'd code that as 

use List::Util qw[ min ];

%h = map{ 
    $_, $h{ $_ } 
} min keys %h;

[download]

Which I think clarifies things a lot as well as saving a little runtime.

I also favour breaking chains over several lines as I think it makes it easier to pick out what is going on.

If I needed to keep the lowest 2 or more elements then 

%h = map{ 
    $_, $h{ $_ } 
} ( sort{ $a <=> $b } keys %h )[ 0 .. 2 ];

[download]
Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"Think for yourself!" - Abigail
"Memory, processor, disk in that order on the hardware side. Algorithm, algoritm, algorithm on the code side." - tachyon

In reply to Re: small steps toward Perl literacy, temp vars and parentheses by BrowserUk
in thread small steps toward Perl literacy, temp vars and parentheses by rir

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