Try this, I had to fix your initial data. this outside braces were wrong. 

#!/usr/bin/perl

# http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=1198452

use strict;
use warnings;

my $foo =
    [
        {
            name => 'a',
            type => 1,
            rockets => 2,
            leaves => 3
        },
        {
            name => 'b',
            type => 7,
            rockets => 4,
            leaves => 1,
            samples => [
                {
                    name => 'mary',
                    dog  => 'fifi'
                },
                {
                    name => 'john',
                    fish => 'oscar'
                }
            ]
        }
    ];

sub fix
  {
  my ($obj) = @_;
  if( 'HASH' eq ref $obj )
    {
    return $obj->{name} => { map fix($_), %$obj };
    }
  elsif( 'ARRAY' eq ref $obj )
    {
    return { map fix($_), @$obj }
    }
  else
    {
    return $obj;
    }
  }

use Data::Dump 'pp';
print "before:\n";
pp $foo;

my $newfoo = fix($foo);

print "after\n";
pp $newfoo;

[download]

Outputs: 

before:
[
  { leaves => 3, name => "a", rockets => 2, type => 1 },
  {
    leaves  => 1,
    name    => "b",
    rockets => 4,
    samples => [
                 { dog => "fifi", name => "mary" },
                 { fish => "oscar", name => "john" },
               ],
    type    => 7,
  },
]
after:
{
  a => { leaves => 3, name => "a", rockets => 2, type => 1 },
  b => {
         leaves  => 1,
         name    => "b",
         rockets => 4,
         samples => {
                      john => { fish => "oscar", name => "john" },
                      mary => { dog => "fifi", name => "mary" },
                    },
         type    => 7,
       },
}

[download]

In reply to Re: Recursive data structure munging - arrayrefs to hashrefs by tybalt89
in thread Recursive data structure munging - arrayrefs to hashrefs by flightdm

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