The dereferencing "operators" have high "precedence"; you need to say @{ $Data->{data}->{dividends}->{rows} } instead, or as of Perl 5.24, $Data->{data}->{dividends}->{rows}->@*. Update: The latter feature was acually available as of 5.20, but needed a use feature 'postderef'; to be enabled. See Using References and Postfix Dereference Syntax in perlref. (Update 2: Added the quotes to the first sentence to be more in line with this.)