The docs for WWW::Mechanize state that the find_link() method

returns a reference to a two element array which has the link URL and link text, respectively. If it fails to find a link it returns undef.
The returned value should be an array ref if it succeeded (not a hash as stated in your post). If you really are getting a hash ref, please post some code with example input and output so we can replicate it.

You can do something like this: 

my $result = $a->find_link( text => "download" );

if( defined $result )
{
    my ( $url, $linktext ) = @{ $result };
    # use $linktext here
}

[download]

HTH

Update: This is true for WWW::Mechanize 0.48, the latest version that I found using PPM. The most recent version on CPAN (1.16) uses WWW::Mechanize::Link objects, as Your Mother indicated below.

In reply to Re: How do I return the text of a link after using find_link with WWW::Mechanize? by bobf
in thread How do I return the text of a link after using find_link with WWW::Mechanize? by SpacemanSpiff

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.