use strict; use warnings; my %hash = ( list1 => ["foo", "bar", "baz"] ); print "list1: [- ", join(" :: ", @{ $hash{list1} || []}), " -]\n"; print "list2: [- ", join(" :: ", @{ $hash{list2} || []}), " -]\n"; __END__ list1: [- foo :: bar :: baz -] list2: [- -]