====usual variable substitution idiom for comparison====
my $lamb = 'wolf';
my $text = 'Mary had a little $lamb.';
$text =~ s/(\$\w+) /$1/eeg;
print $text;

##</code><code>##

my $lamb;
my $mary="Little Rabbit Foo Foo ";
$lamb->{data}[0] = 'wolf';
my $text = '$mary had a little $lamb->{data}[0].';
$text =~ s/(\$[\w\-\>\{\}\[\]]+)[ \.]/$1/eeg;
print $text;