I think that the line 

my ($idx_color, $idx_fruit) = (0,1);

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is a dead giveaway that you should be using an HoH (or even an AoH). By naming your indices you are inadvertently revealing a secret desire to use meaningfully named keys instead. Go for it: 
my $hoh =
  {
    keyone => { color => 'green',
                fruit => 'apple' },
    keytwo => { color => 'purple',
                fruit => 'plum' }
  };

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...and here's your slice: 
my ( $color, $fruit ) = @{ $hoh->{ keytwo } }{ qw( color fruit ) };

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Actually, since you are using such nondescript names for your first keys, maybe an AoH is most suitable: 
my $aoh =
  [
    { color => 'green',  fruit => 'apple' },
    { color => 'purple', fruit => 'plum' },
  ];
my ( $color, $fruit ) = @{ $aoh->[ 1 ] }{ qw( color fruit ) };

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Granted, come initialization time it gets annoying to re-type the names of the keys so many times. Here's one possible way to avoid that, again featuring slices galore: 
my @fields = qw( color fruit );
my $aoh;

@{ $aoh->[ @$aoh ] }{ @fields } = @$_ for ( [ qw( green apple ) ],
                                            [ qw( purple plum ) ] );

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the lowliest monk

In reply to Re: HOA with array slice? by tlm
in thread HOA with array slice? by tphyahoo

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