${${${$_[0]}[0]}[1]}{"dog"} = 15; #### #! /usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; $Data::Dumper::Indent = 2; my $data; $data->[0][0][0]{dog} = 15; print Dumper $data; #### $VAR1 = [ [ [ { 'dog' => 15 } ] ] ];