use strict; use warnings; my %hash; my $label = "label"; my $value = "value"; # this works !!! @hash{ 'a'..'h' } = ( { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, { $label => $value }, ); $hash{ 'a' }{ $label } = "newvalue"; print $hash{ 'b' }{ $label },"\n"; # is "value" !!!