#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use vars qw($alpha_state);

my %hash = (alpha => {state => "hello\n"});
*alpha_state = \$hash{alpha}{state};

# See that the variable got the value.
print $alpha_state;

# Show that they are really tied together.
$alpha_state = "goodbye\n";
print $hash{alpha}{state};