#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use Data::Dumper; my %hash; $hash{'key1'}{'key2'} = 'value'; print "\nDump of \%hash (1):\n"; print Dumper \%hash; # This print statement is actually altering the hash print "\n\"$hash{'key0'}{'key1'}{'key2'}\"\n"; print "\nDump of \%hash (2):\n"; print Dumper \%hash;