Seems to be a popular question for newcomers to ask how to access some component of a complicated structures.

The answer is to user the built-in debugger.

tlegrady@rw-q318:~$ perl -d t.pl

Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.3
Editor support available.

Enter h or `h h' for help, or `man perldebug' for more help.

main::(t.pl:5):    my $data = [
  DB<1> n
main::(t.pl:16):    my $test =  $data->{ name };
  DB<1> x $data
0  ARRAY(0x70b910)
   0  HASH(0x70b970)
      'name' => 'Mary'
  DB<2> x $data->[0]
0  HASH(0x70b970)
   'name' => 'Mary'
  DB<3> x $data->[0]{name}
0  'Mary'

[download]

When the debugger starts, it shows that it's about to execute line 5. I do a "next" ( 'n') to complete that, and then it's going to execute line 16. I query the debugger to show the value of $data, and then of its components. Since you're looking right at it, it's easy to tell you want array element '0', hash tag 'name'.

As Occam said: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

In reply to Re: Access to hash ref element by TomDLux
in thread Access to hash ref element by Anonymous Monk

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