Yes, there was a typo!

Sorry. You are correct and in line with the general thrust of my post, "don't use string '08' as the hash key".

#EXAMPLE 3A
my $string_eight="08";
my $numeric_eight = 8;
if ($string_eight eq $numeric_eight)
{
   print "string $string_eight is eq number $numeric_eight\n";
}
else
{
   print "string $string_eight is NOT eq number $numeric_eight\n";
}

#Example 3B
if ($string_eight == $numeric_eight)
{
   print "string $string_eight is == number $numeric_eight\n";
}
else
{
   print "string $string_eight is NOT == number $numeric_eight\n";
}
__END__
string 08 is NOT eq number 8
string 08 is == number 8
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Ooops....