I think they are suggesting you should verify $bob has something in it. If you don't put a value in $bob, it creates a hash entry with the empty string. If you want a hash entry with the string 'bob', don't put the $ in front of it.

I think this would explain your results. Printing $random_name{$bob} is actually $random_name{''} and you are probably entering the string 'bob' at the prompt.

Try this to verify what you have in %random_name: 

use Data::Dumper;

print Dumper( \%random_name );

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In reply to Re: calling a hash by cbrandtbuffalo
in thread calling a hash by Anonymous Monk

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