... use Data::Dumper; $Data::Dumper::Indent = 0; $Data::Dumper::Terse = 1; $Data::Dumper::Useqq = 1; ... foreach my $key (sort keys %ref) { ... foreach(@temp) { if ($temp[0] == 2) { printf "\$key = %s\n \$ref{%s} = %s\n \$probes[%s] = %s\n", Dumper($key), Dumper($key), Dumper($ref{$key}), Dumper($key), Dumper($probes[$key]); print $key."\t".$ref{$key}."\t".$probes[$key]; } } }