foreach (keys %NewRFactorAverageHash) { $RScale = $NewRFactorAverageHash{$_}; print ("original key is $_\n"); @LaL = split (//, $_); print ("new key is $LaL\n"); $F = $LaL[0]; $BBEL = $LaL[1]; $AR = $LaL[2]; $VL = $LaL[3]; }