my $counter = $x;
foreach my $key (sort keys %user_hash) {
  last if --$counter < 0;
  .. rest of loop ..
}
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-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

foreach $key ((sort keys %user_hash)[0 .. $x]) {
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foreach $key (sort keys %user_hash) {
   last if $key_count++ > $x;
   ...
}
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Update: Abigail is right, the problem is in the sorting. I don't know what the difference will be when you remove the sort from the first method though the second would certainly not take more elements than nessicary.

-- 
Joost       downtime n. The period during which a system
            is error-free and immune from user input.
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Really? How did you plan to do the sorting without building the list of all the keys?

The problem isn't in the slicing (if it makes an impact, it's probably positive, as it reduces the size of the list Perl needs to keep track of as soon as possible), it's the sorting.

Abigail

use strict;
my %hash=("frog"=>"green", "camel"=>"camel_coloured", "flea"=>"who_kno
+ws");
for (my $i=0,my @array=sort keys %hash; $i < 2 ; $i++) {
  print "Key $i: $array[$i]\n";
}
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CU
Robartes-

Update: Changed code snippet so it actually demonstrates the point made.