package foo; sub new { my ($class) = @_; bless { some_scalar => "blah", another_scalar => "blah", some_array => [], an_array_of_arrays => *?? don't know ??*, },$class; } #### my ($class) = @_; my @array1 = (1,2,3); my @array2 = (4,5,6); my $ref_to_array_1 = \@array1; my $ref_to_array_2 = \@array2; #and then: bless {an_array_of_arrays => $ref_to_array1[$ref_to_array2], some_scalar => "foo-bar", },$class;