#!perl -w use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $array_ref = [1, 2, 5, 7, 4]; my %hash; $hash{$array_ref} = 'ashok'; print Dumper($array_ref); print Dumper(\%hash); ------ output -------- $VAR1 = [ 1, 2, 5, 7, 4 ]; $VAR1 = { 'ARRAY(0x2253b8)' => 'ashok' };