• May be assigned in several ways
• Items bounded by parentheses and separated by commas
• Special => operator quotes the key
• Sublists are "flattened" into a single hash

        my %dessert = ("pie", "apple", "cake", "carrot", "sorbet", "orange");

        %dessert = (pie    => "apple",
                    cake   => "carrot",
                    sorbet => "orange"); # Same, but easier to read

        my %ice_cream = (bowl => "chocolate", float => "root beer");
        my %choices = (%dessert, %ice_cream);
        print "I would like $choices{sorbet} sorbet.\n";
      

        Output:
        I would like orange sorbet.