NAME Tie::Hash::RegexKeys - Match hash keys using Regular Expressions SYNOPSIS use Tie::Hash::RegexKeys; use Data::Dumper; my %h; tie %h, 'Tie::Hash::RegexKeys'; my $a = '.1.2.3.4.5.6.2'; my $b = '.1.2.3.4.5.7'; my $c = '.1.2.3.4.5.6.1'; my $d = '.1.2.3.4.5.6.1.6'; $h{$a}="key1"; $h{$b}="key2"; $h{$c}="subkey1"; $h{$d}="subkey2"; my $pat = '^\.1\.2\.3\.4\.5\.6.*'; my @res = tied(%h)->FETCH_KEYS(qr/$pat/); print Dumper(@res); Return this: $VAR1 = '.1.2.3.4.5.6.1'; $VAR2 = '.1.2.3.4.5.6.1.6'; $VAR3 = '.1.2.3.4.5.6.2' DESCRIPTION Extend Tie::Hash::Regex to retrieve the KEYS in place of values METHODS FETCH_KEYS Get KEY(S) from the hash. If there isn't an exact match try a regex match. AUTHOR Fabrice DULAUNOY COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 2005, Fabrice DULAUNOY. All Rights Reserved. This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. SEE ALSO perl(1). perltie(1). Tie::RegexHash(1) Tie::Hash::Regex(1) :