The code you posted only works if the first tiers are all hashes - if they are arrays it won't work - which the example I posted has arrays - anyway I switched to checking against a hash since it should be faster processing. The following code works well regardless of how the reference comes in (HASH or ARRAY) 
sub get_user_keys {

# subfunction traverses the a hash or array reference for all of the k
+eys in all tiers

my $hashORarray_ref = shift @_;
my %the_inputs;
        
if (ref $hashORarray_ref eq 'HASH') {
   foreach ( keys %{$hashORarray_ref} ){
#      print "$_ \n";
      unless(defined $the_inputs{$_}){$the_inputs{$_} = 1}
      @the_inputs{ keys %{get_user_keys($hashORarray_ref->{$_})} } = v
+alues %{get_user_keys($hashORarray_ref->{$_})};
   }
}
if (ref $hashORarray_ref eq 'ARRAY') {
   for (my $i = 0; $i < scalar(@{$hashORarray_ref}); $i++) {
      @the_inputs{ keys %{get_user_keys($hashORarray_ref->[$i])} } = v
+alues %{get_user_keys($hashORarray_ref->[$i])};
   }
}
return(\%the_inputs);
}

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In reply to Re^4: subroutine memory variable scope by austinj
in thread subroutine memory variable scope by austinj

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