#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my %valid=(
        first   => [1..8],
        second  => [1..3],
        third   => [1..6]
);

for(keys %valid){

        print "the length of \$valid{$_} is ", 
                 scalar @{$valid{$_}}, 
                 "\n";
}


##</code><code>##

the length of $valid{first} is 8
the length of $valid{third} is 6
the length of $valid{second} is 3