#! perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $animals = { gnu => { humps => 0, mascot_for => 'emacs', }, dromedary => { humps => 1, mascot_for => 'perl', }, camel => { humps => 2, mascot_for => 'perl', }, }; my $flat = Dumper($animals); print "$1\n" while $flat =~ / 'humps' \s+ => \s+ (\d+) /gx;