use Data::Dumper; use strict; use warnings; my $data = {"a" => 1}; $data->{"b"}->{"b"}->{"b"}->{"b"};#useless use of hash element in void context? interesting error message. The useless use is actually not that useless. print Dumper($data); #### $VAR1 = { 'a' => 1, 'b' => { 'b' => { 'b' => {} } } };