#!/usr/local/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $h= { (4,-1), (2,6), (6,4), (3,5), (5,-1), (99,-1), }; my %hh; my %tails; while(my ($key, $value) = each %$h) { my $val; if($value == -1) { $val = -1; } elsif(exists($hh{$value})) { $val = { $value => $hh{$value} }; delete($hh{$value}); } else { $val = {}; $tails{$value} = $val; } if(exists($tails{$key})) { $tails{$key}{$key} = $val; } else { $hh{$key} = $val; } } print Dumper(\%hh);