Why don't you just always treat them as references? Then you won't have to reference/dereference them each time. 

# Define them as hash references.
my $RECORDxRI_count_REF = {};
my $EACH_RECORD_REF = {};

while (<DATA>) {
    ....
    # Call build list--now you don't need to
    # take references to the hashes, because they're
    # already references
    build_list( $RECORD, $RI, $RECORDxRI, $RECORDxRI_count_REF, $EACH_
+RECORD_REF );
    ....
}

sub build_list {
    my( $RECORD, $RI, $RECORDxRI, $RECORDxRI_count_REF, $EACH_RECORD_R
+EF ) = @_;

    # These are hash references. To access them,
    # you *don't* need to assign them to hashes.
    # Just use the -> operator, which automatically
    # dereferences them.
    $RECORDxRI_count->{$RECORDxRI}++;
    $EACH_RECORD->{$RECORD} = '';
}

[download]
Read perlref if this doesn't make sense.

In reply to Re: defining a HASH table by reference and using it in a sub function by btrott
in thread defining a HASH table by reference and using it in a sub function by Buckaroo Buddha

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.