I have looked over some previous entries about hashes of hashes and hashes of arrays, and I think I understand the concepts for the most part. I am failing miserably at trying to understand how to access data when it's nested among both types. This is a data structure that is returned from an external tool that I need to parse. 
$VAR1 = {
          'IsLocked' => {},
          'ID' => '18827',
          'TransactionID' => 'eb8xxx8-xxxb-4xx7-baed-xxx66c790c3',
          'Name' => 'Production - xxxx',
          'FarmRoleSet' => {
                           'Item' => [
                                     {
                                       'IsScalingEnabled' => '1',
                                       'ServerSet' => {
                                                      'Item' => {
                                                                'Uptim
+e' => '1452.4',
                                                                'Serve
+rID' => 'xxxxc-487f-9281-0ebf39d2d4ea',
                                                                'Statu
+s' => 'Running',
                                                                'Exter
+nalIP' => '54.193.71.108',
                                                                'Index
+' => '1',
                                                                'Inter
+nalIP' => '1.1.11.106',
                                                                'Scala
+rizrVersion' => '2.5.2',
                                                                'Platf
+ormProperties' => {
                                                                      
+                  'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                                      
+                  'InstanceID' => 'i-xxxx43',
                                                                      
+                  'AMIID' => 'ami-xxxxxe97',
                                                                      
+                  'AvailabilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                                      
+                },
                                                                'IsDbM
+aster' => '0'
                                                              }
                                                    },
                                       'ID' => '68608',
                                       'RoleID' => '62343',
                                       'Platform' => 'ec2',
                                       'CloudLocation' => 'us-west-1',
                                       'Name' => 'prod-app-xxx-v2',
                                       'Category' => 'Application Serv
+ers',
                                       'PlatformProperties' => {
                                                               'Instan
+ceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                               'Availa
+bilityZone' => 'x-scalr-diff'
                                                             },
                                       'ScalingAlgorithmSet' => {},
                                       'ScalingProperties' => {
                                                              'MaxInst
+ances' => '3',
                                                              'MinInst
+ances' => '1'
                                                            }
                                     },
                                     {
                                       'IsScalingEnabled' => '1',
                                       'ServerSet' => {
                                                      'Item' => [
                                                                {
                                                                  'Upt
+ime' => '4438.55',
                                                                  'Ser
+verID' => 'xxxxx5-cfa7-4ea2-8013-34adxxxxxxx',
                                                                  'Sta
+tus' => 'Running',
                                                                  'Ext
+ernalIP' => '999.999.1.187',
                                                                  'Ind
+ex' => '1',
                                                                  'Int
+ernalIP' => '999.9.4.162',
                                                                  'Sca
+larizrVersion' => '2.4.5',
                                                                  'Pla
+tformProperties' => {
                                                                      
+                    'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                                      
+                    'InstanceID' => 'i-e6xxxx9',
                                                                      
+                    'AMIID' => 'ami-94exxx',
                                                                      
+                    'AvailabilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                                      
+                  },
                                                                  'IsD
+bMaster' => '1'
                                                                },
                                                                {
                                                                  'Upt
+ime' => '4428.4',
                                                                  'Ser
+verID' => 'xxxxx-625f-4afc-b544-68fe0740dc0f',
                                                                  'Sta
+tus' => 'Running',
                                                                  'Ext
+ernalIP' => '999.99.34.230',
                                                                  'Ind
+ex' => '2',
                                                                  'Int
+ernalIP' => '999.99.3.165',
                                                                  'Sca
+larizrVersion' => '2.4.5',
                                                                  'Pla
+tformProperties' => {
                                                                      
+                    'InstanceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                                      
+                    'InstanceID' => 'i-xxx',
                                                                      
+                    'AMIID' => 'ami-xxx',
                                                                      
+                    'AvailabilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                                      
+                  },
                                                                  'IsD
+bMaster' => '0'
                                                                }
                                                              ]
                                                    },
                                       'ID' => '68609',
                                       'RoleID' => '61944',
                                       'Platform' => 'ec2',
                                       'DbMsrProperties' => {
                                                            'IsBackupR
+unning' => '1395658969',
                                                            'LastBundl
+eTime' => '0',
                                                            'IsBundleR
+unning' => '0',
                                                            'LastBacku
+pTime' => '1395475213'
                                                          },
                                       'CloudLocation' => 'us-west-1',
                                       'Name' => 'prod-xxx-platform-no
+-sync-db-mysql64-ubuntu1204',
                                       'Category' => 'Databases',
                                       'PlatformProperties' => {
                                                               'Instan
+ceType' => 'm3.medium',
                                                               'Availa
+bilityZone' => 'us-west-1b'
                                                             },
                                       'ScalingAlgorithmSet' => {},
                                       'ScalingProperties' => {
                                                              'MaxInst
+ances' => '4',
                                                              'MinInst
+ances' => '2'
                                                            }
                                     }
                                   ]
                         }
        };

[download]
I'd love if there were a way to simply search for a particular key ID where another particular key matches a user defined regex. For example, I may only be interested in "ExternalIP" and "InstanceID" where the RoleID = $someNum. Short of that, I've tried several variations of what I think look to be the right way to address the structure and haven't yet figured it out. As an example: 
print Dumper(@{$farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}}); #works as expect
+ed
print Dumper($farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}); #also works as expe
+cted
print Dumper($farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->{ServerSet}); # fail
+s - not a hashref
print Dumper(@{$farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->{ServerSet}}); # a
+lso fails - not a hashref
print Dumper(@{$farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->[0]->{ServerSet}})
+; # also fails - not an arrayref
print Dumper($farmdetails->{FarmRoleSet}->{Item}->[0]->{ServerSet}); #
+ works, displaying the first 'Item' array

[download]
When working with the last example, how can I iterate through the array items? Is there a better way to deal with heavily nested structures like this?

In reply to deeply nested hashes of arrays of hashes of... by hiptoss

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