my %dispatcher => ( \$quux => [ sub { return 0 unless $_[0] =~ ${$_[1]}; ${$_[3]} =~ s/${$_[1]}/${$_[2]}/; return $_[3]; }, qr{bar}, qq{foo}, ], ); $dispatcher{$key} -> [0] -> ($file, $dispatcher{$key} -> [0] -> [1], $dispatcher{$key} -> [0] -> [1]);