The code my @layouts = map { $_, $pub->{$_}->{'name'} } sort { $pub->{$a}->{'name'} cmp $pub->{$b}->{'name'} } grep { /^\d+$/ && $pub->{$_}->{'type'} eq "layout" && LJ::S2::can_use_layer($u, $pub->{$_}->{'uniq'}) } keys %$pub; Go over all layout IDs (keys %$pub) grep for keys that are numerical and refer to layout objects which the user $u is allowed to use sort by layout name construct a hash from layout IDs to names ignore the fact that it's @layout vs %layout, it's not related