my $messages = $results->msgs(); # $messages now contains a hashref
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I guess that's where my brain cramp was .... following your example allowed me to access the values - thanks very much.

I think the trouble I'm having coming up to speed is wrapping my brain around the various forms of data ... for some reason, items such as %$message are still un-intuitive for me.

>I would recommend that you read the references tutorial here on PerlMonks to get you familiar with how to access data structures in perl.

I certainly will (probably numerous times) ... sometimes it's difficult to know what to read when you don't know what you need ;).

I've got a feeling that when it finally becomes clear, it will be in a threshold way, and I'll find myself wondering why it took me so long to grasp it.