my @ary = ([1, 2, 3],[3, 4, 5],[0, 2, 4]); my %fred = ( $ary[0] => [1, 1, 0], $ary[1] => [0, 1, 0], $ary[2] => [1, 2, 1], ); for my $k (keys %fred) { print "$k element 0: '",$k->[0],"'\n"; print "array: (",join(",",@$k),")\n"; } __END__ ARRAY(0x19cca60) element 0: '' array: () ARRAY(0x19ccb80) element 0: '' array: () ARRAY(0x19af998) element 0: '' array: ()