This is actually trickier than anyone has suggested. An array slice is actually just a list of scalars, not another array that you can reference. That's why you get a scalar reference from your printout; the \ is referencing the last element in the list. If you change it to $$user_dict{$user} to dereference the reference it will be the shell.

What you actually need to do is to enclose the slice in square brackets to convert it into an anonymous array, like so: 

@user_info = split /:/;  #$_ not needed, as it's the default
$user_dict{$user_info[0]} = [@user_info[4,5]];  #create anonymous arra
+y
...
print "User Info for $user:  $user_dict{$user}[0] $user_dict{$user}[1]
+\n";

[download]

I agree, though, that this probably isn't the best way of doing this. If you're not going to use the home dir and shell for anything else, there's no reason not to join them into a single scalar right away: 

@user_info = split /:/;  #$_ not needed, as it's the default
$user_dict{$user_info[0]} = join(" ", @user_info[4,5]);
...
print "User Info for $user:  $user_dict{$user}\n";

[download]

By using a join instead of concatenating strings it will be easier to modify the information you display later.

In reply to Re: newbie - hash - array? by rgmoore
in thread newbie - hash - array? by Anonymous Monk

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