Hash-Abbrev this module creates an abbreviation hash where each abbreviation of the key is read/write aliased to the same value. use Hash::Abbrev; my $hash = abbrev qw(file directory count); say $$hash{f}; # 'file' say $$hash{dir} # 'directory' $_ .= '!' for @$hash{qw/f d c/}; say $$hash{file}; # 'file!' say $$hash{co}; # 'count!' or as a dispatch table: @$hash{qw/file dir count/} = (\&load_file, \&read_dir, \&get_count); $$hash{f}(...) # calls load_file(...) $$hash{directory}(...) # calls read_dir(...) INSTALLATION To install this module, run the following commands: perl Build.PL ./Build ./Build test ./Build install SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc Hash::Abbrev You can also look for information at: RT, CPAN's request tracker http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Hash-Abbrev AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation http://annocpan.org/dist/Hash-Abbrev CPAN Ratings http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Hash-Abbrev Search CPAN http://search.cpan.org/dist/Hash-Abbrev/ LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 2011 Eric Strom This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.