It is a scalar anonymous hash reference. If by "real hash" you mean "not an anonymous hash reference", try (untested):
    my %newhash = ( data => { ... }, total => do { ... }, );

So I have done the following sub:


    foreach my $dir (@{$dirs})
    {
        decode($dir.".data.json",%data); # will change name
        my $final_href = 
        {
            data => { ( %{$final_href->{data} },%{ $data{data} } ) },
            total => do
            {
                my %total;
                for my $href ( $final_href->{total}, $data{total} ) {
                    $total{$_} += $href->{total}{$_} for keys %{ $href
+->{total} };
                }
            \%total;
            }
        };
[download]

But it will fail because at start $final_href->{data} is not defined. How to make it work even if its not defined (in that case I should just get the $data{$data}

Declare final_href outside the loop and initialize there empty data and total hashes as defaults.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice}