$db->{test} = {};
$db->{test}->{fred} = [ 1 .. 10 ];
$db->{test}->{bill} = [ 'a' .. 'z' ];

# if the above doesn't work either, try the
# following ridiculous snippet:
$db->{test} = {};
$db->{test}->{fred} = [];
push( @{ $db->{test}->{fred} }, $_ ) for ( 1 .. 10 );
$db->{test}->{bill} = [];
push( @{ $db->{test}->{bill} }, $_ ) for ( 'a' .. 'z' );

##</code><code>##

#!c:/perl/bin/perl -w
use strict;

use DBM::Deep;
use Data::Dumper;

unlink './test.dbm';

my $db = DBM::Deep->new( './test.dbm' );  
$db->{test} = { fred => [ 1 .. 10 ], bill => [ 'a' .. 'z' ] };

print Dumper $db;