Read-only result? I'm not sure what you mean by that, but if you assign to an element of $r, that affects $my_hash_ref. They're all references so they're pointing at the same data. 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use Data::Dumper;

my $hash = {
    a => { ab => { ac => 'fred' }, abb => 'barney' },
    b => 'betty',
    c => { cb => 'dino' },
    };

my $r = $hash;

my @k = qw( a ab );

print Dumper( $hash );

$r = $r->{$_} foreach @k;

$r->{ 'ac' } = 'Mr. Slate';

print Dumper( $hash );

[download]
--
brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com>
Subscribe to The Perl Review

In reply to Re^2: I have a hash in a hash in a ..... by brian_d_foy
in thread I have a hash in a hash in a ..... by Anonymous Monk

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.