c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -le "my $hr = { 'o.misc04' => 'xxx' }; print qq/'$$hr{o.misc04}'/; " '' c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -le "use warnings; ;; my $hr = { 'o.misc04' => 'xxx' }; print qq/'$$hr{o.misc04}'/; " Unquoted string "o" may clash with future reserved word at -e line 1. Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at -e line 1. '' c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -le "use warnings; use strict; ;; my $hr = { 'o.misc04' => 'xxx' }; print qq/'$$hr{o.misc04}'/; " Bareword "o" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at -e line 1. Bareword "misc04" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at -e line 1. Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.