Same hash, two ways to access: hai eq hai Original hash: { 'somekey' => 'someval', 'o' => 'hai' } Hash deleting key o: { 'somekey' => 'someval' } Use of uninitialized value in print at /Users/moo/Desktop/pm.pl line 17. Print it directly (unintialized now): o => Hash after moving stuff around: { 'new_key' => { 'o' => 'hai', 'sub_key' => 'new value' }, 'somekey' => 'someval' } Perl data structures are *flexible* { 'subroutine' => sub { "DUMMY" }, 'fancy_data' => [ 'one', { 'two' => 'is a hash(ref)' }, [ 'another', 'array' ], 'last' ], 'somekey' => 'someval', 'as' => { 'deep' => { 'as' => { 'array_ref' => [ 'one', 'two' ], 'you' => 'please' } } }, 'new_key' => { 'o' => 'hai', 'sub_key' => 'new value' } } Excecuting code ref through data...OHAI!