ahhh, I see. Again though, it does appear from what you've posted that $value DOES contain data, and if that's the case, all of your tests will be true.

One way to see if I'm correct in thinking you've got a defined value (hashref) is this:

print "it's a hashref\n" if ref($hh{'QUESTION_TEXT'}) eq 'HASH';
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-stevieb

I see you are saying it's defined, but I want to check if it contains any data - has a non null value. The dumper output shows an empty hash as its value, but I want to print something different if it has an empty hash, vs a non empty hash. That's my else clause - but I can't get that else clause to execute. And note that it is an empty hash, but it doesn't print a null string when I print it - instead, it prints "HASH(xxxx)" string, which I don't want

Ok, so you want to see if the hash in that value is empty... I think I get you now ;) Try this:

if (%{$hh{'QUESTION_TEXT'}}){
    # do stuff...
}
else {
    # it's empty, so do different stuff...
}
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It dereferences the inner hashref, and checks if it isn't null (empty).

-stevieb