You could just use ref 
my $item1 = {
    result => { value => 'a' },
};

my $item2 = {
    result => [
        { value => 'b' },
        { value => 'c' },
    ],
};

parse_result( $item1->{'result'} );
parse_result( $item2->{'result'} );

sub parse_result {
    my $result = shift;
    if ( ref $result eq 'HASH' ) {
        print "Parsing hashref\n";
        print "Value: $result->{'value'}\n";
    }
    elsif ( ref $result eq 'ARRAY' ) {
        print "Parsing arrayref\n";
        my @values;
        for my $item ( @$result ) {
            push( @values, $item->{'value'} );
        }
        print "Values: @values\n";
    }
}

[download]
OUTPUT

Parsing hashref
Value: a
Parsing arrayref
Values: b c

[download]

In reply to Re: hashref with(out) arrays by tangent
in thread hashref with(out) arrays by bfdi533

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