use strict; my %ShortToLong =("A"=>"Ambiente","Bed"=>"Bediener","Bl"=>"Blumen","K"=>"Kellner","Bel"=>"Beleuchtung"); my %LongToShort = reverse %ShortToLong; sub checkit { my ($word) = @_; return $ShortToLong{$word} || $LongToShort{$word} || ""; } print checkit("A"),"\n"; print checkit("Blumen"),"\n"; print checkit("esskar"),"\n";