The significance is that line 56 is the earliest point at which Perl discovers there's a problem with line 55.

Line 55 grabs the value of a hash key. In this case, that hash key does not contain a hash reference (maybe doesn't exist at all). But this is no problem for Perl. If the key doesn't exist, then the value is undef. If it exists but isn't a hash reference, it still causes no problem for line 55. In line 56 you then try to dereference that value as though it were a hash. If the value was undef, that clearly cannot be dereferenced. And if the value was defined, but wasn't a hash ref, you also cannot dereference it as a hash. So at this point Perl has no idea what to do, and complains.


Dave

In reply to Re^3: Not a HASH reference error by davido
in thread Not a HASH reference error by briandanderson1977

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