#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my %hash = ('a' => { 'value' => 1, 'foo' => 'bar', }, 'b' => { 'value' => 2, 'foo' => 'bar', }, 'c' => { 'value' => 3, 'foo' => 'bar', }, ); if (! $hash{'d'}->{'value'}) { print "That key doesn't exist. Valid keys are: "; print join (", ", keys %hash); }