use strict; use warnings; 
use Data::Dumper; 

my @arr=({a=>1,b=>2},{a=>3,b=>4},{a=>5,b=>6}); 
print '$#arr       :'.$#arr."\n";
print 'scalar(@arr):'.scalar(@arr)."\n";
print Dumper \@arr; 


my @results = rvar('hash') . "\n";
print Dumper \@results; 
print "Number of array elements: <b>" . @results . "</b><br>\n";

my @results2 = rvar('arr') . "\n";
print Dumper \@results2; 
print "Number of array elements: <b>" . @results2 . "</b><br>\n";

sub rvar { 
my $mode=shift; 
my @arr=({a=>1,b=>2},{a=>3,b=>4},{a=>5,b=>6}); 
if ($#arr eq 2) {print "text eq works but weird\n"; } 
if ($mode eq 'hash') {  
  my $hashRef = $arr[0];
  return $hashRef; 
  } 
elsif ($mode eq 'arr') {  
  my $arrayRef = \@arr;
  return $arrayRef;
  } 
return 0; 
}