It's not clear from your post what exactly you are trying to do, but I think I have some idea. Is there any reason why something like the following isn't good enough?
$hash{'companies'}{'microsoft'}{'people'}{'steve ballmer'} = 'bills bu +lldog'; $hash{'companies'}{'cross over'}{'supports'} = ['iTunes', 'photo shop' +];
That is, as opposed to:
add_to_hash(\%hash,'scalar','companies-microsoft-people-steve ballmer' +,'bills bulldog'); add_to_hash(\%hash,'list','companies-cross over-supports','iTunes','ph +oto shop');
I'm also not sure what you wanted to accomplish with \$hashref = $%hashref{foobar}, but I think it's wrong in too many ways to even list.

-driver8

In reply to Re: seeking in hash data structure by driver8
in thread seeking in hash data structure by Maze

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