The question comes up frequently:
How do I start with %myhash, and a list of keys qw(bedrock flintstone fred), and get access to the value at $myhash{bedrock}{flintstone}{fred}?
Well, you call pointer_to_element, like: 
my $ref = pointer_to_element(\%myhash, qw(bedrock flintstone fred));
$$ref = 42; # set it to 42
$$ref++; # increment it
print $$ref; # print it!

[download]
sub pointer_to_element {
  require List::Util;
  return List::Util::reduce(sub { \($$a->{$b}) }, \shift, @_);
}

[download]

In reply to Recursively walk a hash to get to an element by merlyn

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