Thanks to all for the replies. I see now that I did not make my problem clear enough. My script is accessing a company-proprietary package that interfaces with the server. The "Read()" routine from the package returns a hash. Depending on the event being read, the hash will have a different set of key/value pairs, but each hash contains an ID key/value pair so that the calling code can process the data correctly: 
my %event = SECRET_PACKAGE_NAME::WaitForEvent($timeout);

[download]
My script is initiating an action which causes the server to spit out data at a much higher rate than normal. Originally I was reading a single hash and processing it real-time. Running some external diagnostics showed that I was missing some key data, so I decided to run a tight loop to collect ALL the data. I tried the following which didn't work: 
my @Events;
while(1)
{
  my %event = ();
  eval
  {
    %event = SECRET_PACKAGE_NAME::WaitForEvent($timeout);
  };
  if($@)
  {
    # timeout occurred, serial burst complete
    last;
  }
  else
  {
    push (@Events, \%event);
  }
}# end while
...
while(@Events)
{
   # Get the first event, NOT the last one
   my $EventRef = shift(@Events);
}

# $EventRef points to garbage

[download]
Does this clarify my issue? I need to preserve all the key/value pairs of the received data somehow so that I can post-process the information. Thanks again for the responses

In reply to Re^2: Creating an array of hash references by Bobc
in thread Creating an array of hash references by Bobc

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