Hello NodXof, and welcome to the Monastery!

You are actually returning a list, not a hash. Now, if the subroutine is called in list context, the list will indeed be returned; but if (as appears to be the case) it’s called in scalar context, only the right-most element of the list will be returned (see Comma Operator). In this case, the right-most element is 1. On context, see Context tutorial by kyle.

You will find it easier to return a hash reference from the sub. For example:

if ($duplications){
    return { 'nick_name' => 1 };
}
[download]

Of course, you will then need to dereference the hash reference upon returning from the sub:

my  $href = saveAccountAccess (...);
my ($key, $val) = %$href;
[download]

See perlreftut.

Updates: Added references to the Perl documentation and to the Monastery’s tutorial on context in Perl.

Hope that helps,