use Test::More 'no_plan'; our @arr; my %h; $h{'key'} = \@arr; # take a reference to @arr @{$h{'key'}}[0,1] = qw(hello world); is( $arr[0], 'hello', '$arr[0] is "hello"' ); is( $arr[1], 'world', '$arr[1] is "world"' ); is( $h{'key'}->[0], 'hello', q{$h{'key'}->[0] is 'hello'} );