#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my @AoA = ( [1,2,3],
            [4,5,6],
          );
          
my @cloneAoA = map{[@$_]}@AoA;  

$AoA[0][1]   = 99;
$AoA[1]->[2] = 88;

print Dumper \@AoA;   
print "the cloneAoA is still the same, but AoA changed!\n";
print Dumper \@cloneAoA;
print "-------- now HoH ----------------\n";

my %HoH = ( 'a' => { 'x' => 1,
                     'y' => 2,
                   },
            'b' => { 'xx' => 3,
                     'yy' => 4,
                   },
          );
           
my %cloneHoH;
foreach my $key (keys (%HoH))
{
   $cloneHoH{$key} = { %{$HoH{$key}} };
}

$HoH{'a'}{'x'}  = 88;
$HoH{'b'}{'yy'} = 99;

print Dumper \%HoH;
print "the clone is still the same, although %HoH changed!\n";
print Dumper \%cloneHoH;
print "========= now HoHoH ==============\n";

my %HoHoH  = ('x' => { 'ao' =>  { 'mx' => 1,
                                  'my' => 2,
                                  'mz' => 3,
                                },
                       'ap' =>  { 'nx' => 4,
                                  'ny' => 5,
                                },
                     },
              'y' => { 'bq' =>  { 'bx' => 6,
                                  'by' => 7,
                                },
                     },
             );

#to clone the $HoHoH{'x'}{'ap'} sub-hash...

my %xapClone = %{$HoHoH{'x'}{'ap'}};

$HoHoH{'x'}{'ap'}{'nx'} = 99;
$HoHoH{'x'}{'ap'}{'ny'} = 88;

print Dumper \%HoHoH;
print "the %xapClone still has nx => 4 and ny => 5\n";
print Dumper \%xapClone;

__END__
#output shown below.... in <readmore> section