c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my @add_ins = ({ qw(foo bar) }, { qw(biz boz) }); ;; my $add_in = (); @$add_in = $add_ins[0]; dd $add_in; print $add_in->[0]{'foo'} " [{ foo => "bar" }] bar