use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; sub get_user_details { my @temp; my %user_details; while (@temp = getpwent()) { $user_details{$temp[0]} = [@temp] ; } return \%user_details; } my $hash_ref = get_user_details(); print Dumper $hash_ref; #### 'hema' => [ 'hema', 'x', 1000, 1000, '', '', 'Hema,,,', '/home/hema', '/bin/bash' ], #### use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; sub return_arr_ref { my @array = (1,2,3,4,5,6,7); return \@array; } my $array_ref = return_arr_ref(); print Dumper $array_ref;