#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;    # safety checks
use warnings;  # useful hints
use Data::Dumper;

# notice the use of 'my' to declare a lexical scope
my @Address=qw(type firstname lastname streetaddress city zip);
my @Phone=qw(type name phonenumber);

sub ReadStuff {
    # instead of using funny global variables, scope the 
    # hash within the subroutine, and return a reference at
    # the end
    my %Stuff;

    # $_[0]       is the first element of the array @_
    # eq          is the string equality test
    # @h{@k} = @v is the syntax for hash slices
    if    ($_[0] eq 'addr')  { @Stuff{@Address} = @_ }
    elsif ($_[0] eq 'phone') { @Stuff{@Phone}   = @_ }

    # return a reference (as mentioned before)
    return \%Stuff;
}


# let's quote our list elements this time
my @data1 = ('addr', 'bob', 'smith', '1234 main st', 'anytown', '20500');
my $stuff1 = ReadStuff(@data1);

my @data2 = ('phone', 'bob', 'smith', '212-555-1212');
my $stuff2 = ReadStuff(@data2);

# dump the results from both runs
print Dumper $stuff1;
print Dumper $stuff2;