$pinky = {}; $pinky->{zorch}{poit}{narf} = "I don't know, Brain, where will we get hip-waders this time of night?"; #### $pinky = {}; # Ooh, you referenced zorch, and it's not there. $pinky->{zorch} = undef; # And now you want to reference 'poit' in that as a hash, so we'll add an new anonymous hash instead: $pinky->{zorch} = {}; $pinky->{zorch}{poit} = undef; # and then you want to go one more level: $pinky->{zorch}{poit} = {}; $pinky->{zorch}{poit}{narf} = undef; # And you want to set that to a value: $pinky->{zorch}{poit}{narf} = "I don't know, Brain, where will we get hip-waders this time of night?"; #### $eat_memory={}; $eat_memory->{bad_idea}[99999][99999][99999] = "yummy, yummy, memory";