use Data::Dumper; use strict; use warnings; my %foo = ( BAZ => 1 ); sub see_args { }; print Dumper(\%foo); see_args( @foo{qw(BAR BAZ)} ); print Dumper(\%foo); #### $VAR1 = { 'BAZ' => 1 }; $VAR1 = { 'BAZ' => 1, 'BAR' => undef };