asab:

Remember that $x is a different variable than %x. Try dumping %x instead (but put a \ before it, otherwise the hash will expand to a list, and Dumper will treat it as 10 values to dump.

Also, rather than the "C" style for loop, you might find it better to use a perl style loop:

use Data::Dumper;

for $i (0 .. 4) {
   $x{$i}="x";
}

print Dumper(\%x);
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...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.