... assistance on how I could ... print this data structure ...

A way to better print the data structure during development and debug (and when communicating with your fellow monks) is to properly use structure dumping tools like Data::Dumper and Data::Dump. For instance, you show one dump as 

$VAR1 = 'mode';
$VAR2 = {
          'type' => ' auto mode',
          'action' => ' completed on own.'
        };

[download]
which suggests a statement like
    print Dumper %hash;
was used to generate it. This use of Dumper and its siblings and cousins such as dd in Data::Dump flattens out the top-level key/value pairs of the hash into a representation that quickly becomes incomprehensible, IMHO, for large structures (although I think dd does a bit better with it than Dumper).

Properly passing the structure by reference leads to a much more comprehensible representation. Ferinstance: 

>perl -wMstrict -le
"use Data::Dumper;
 ;;
 my %component = (
   'mode' => {
     'type'   => ' auto mode',
     'action' => ' completed on own.',
     },
   'mood' => {
     'switch1' => {
       'type'   => ' auto mode for switch1',
       'action' => ' completed with assistance.',
       },
     'switch2' => {
       'type'   => ' auto mode for switch2',
       'action' => 'completed on own.',
       },
     },
   );
 ;;
 print Dumper \%component;
"
$VAR1 = {
          'mode' => {
                      'action' => ' completed on own.',
                      'type' => ' auto mode'
                    },
          'mood' => {
                      'switch2' => {
                                     'action' => 'completed on own.',
                                     'type' => ' auto mode for switch2
+'
                                   },
                      'switch1' => {
                                     'action' => ' completed with assi
+stance.',
                                     'type' => ' auto mode for switch1
+'
                                   }
                    }
        };

[download]

In reply to Re: array of hashes? by AnomalousMonk
in thread array of hashes? by Mark.Allan

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