When defining a normal array or hash, always use (). That's given, and hopefully easiest to remember since it's used the most.

To remember the braces for references, I use this logic:

# to access a member of an ARRAY, use []
$array[0] = "hello";
# so to define an anonymous array reference, use [] as well
$array_ref = [ "Hello", "World" ];

# to access a member of a HASH, use {}
$hash{'foo'} = "bar";
# so to define an anonymous hash reference, use {} as well
$hash_ref = { foo => 'bar', xyz => 'abc' };
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So just remember how you access elements in an array/hash, and that will tell you which braces to use for anonymous refs as well. It won't take long for it to become second nature.

blokhead