package Data::Hash::Flatten; use Storable qw(dclone); sub this { my @args = ([], @_[1 .. $#_]); Data::Hash::Flatten->_flatten(@args); } sub _flatten { my (undef, $flattened, $href, $field, $depth, $flat_rec ) = @_; @$flattened = () unless defined($depth); if ( ref $href ) { my @key = keys %$href; for my $key_i ( 0 .. $#key ) { my $key = $key[$key_i]; $flat_rec->{ $field->[$depth] } = $key; Data::Hash::Flatten->_flatten($flattened, $href->{$key}, $field, $depth + 1, $flat_rec); } } else { $flat_rec->{ hits } = $href; my $new_rec = dclone $flat_rec; push @$flattened, $new_rec; } @$flattened; } package main; use Data::Dumper; my $a = { bill => { '5/27/96' => { 'a.dat' => 1, 'b.txt' => 2, 'c.lsp' => 3 } }, jimm => { '6/22/98' => { 'x.prl' => 9, 'y.pyt' => 8, 'z.tcl' => 7 } } }; my @a = Data::Hash::Flatten->this( $a, [qw(name date file)] ); print Dumper( \@a );