my %test_hash;
$test_hash{'a'}{'b'}{'c'}{'d'} = "Yay";
print get_id(\%test_hash, "a.b.c.d"), "\n";

sub get_id
{
	my $thingy = shift;
	my @keys = split /\./, shift;
	
	foreach my $key ( @keys )
	{
		$thingy =  $$thingy{$key};
	}
	return $thingy;
	
}