This is the first time that I have attempted to use complex data structures in Perl, and I bet I have made some small mistake. Below is what I believe is the significant code, from structure declaration to the attempted assignment. I have diagnostics and strict on. 
my %member_info = (
        mid=>undef,
        created_info=>{created_by=>undef, created_date=>undef,},
        modified_info=>{modified_by=>undef, modified_date=>undef,},
        person=>[
            0=>{salutation=>undef, first_name=>undef, middle_initial=>
+undef, last_name=>undef, date_of_birth=>undef, primary_language=>unde
+f, secondary_language=>undef,  marital_status=>undef, working=>undef,
+ family_size=>undef, home_days=>undef, leader=>undef, default=>undef,
+}, 
            ],
        school=>[
                 0=>{school_type=>"school", school_name=>undef, gradua
+tion_date=>undef}, 
                 1=>{school_type=>"school1", school_name=>undef, gradu
+ation_date=>undef},
                 ],
    ); # declaring it just so I don't forget 
    $response = $browser->get("https://infoishere.org/tails.asp?" . $_
+) if m/^\d+$/;
    $toke_parse = HTML::TokeParser->new( \$response->content );
#tokeparse full document, fill structure with data
    while($token = $toke_parse->get_token){
    #match the table id's to start per-table loops
        next unless ($token->[0] eq 'S' and $token->[1] eq 'table'); #
+only test table start tokes, skip other tokes 
        if(($token->[0] eq "S") and ($token->[4] =~ m/id.{1,3}table13/
+i)){ #member unique id and name
        $token = $toke_parse->get_token until(($token->[0] eq "E") and
+ ($token->[1] =~ m/tr/i)); # end header row
        #debugging
        print Dumper(\%member_info);
        $member_info{'person'}[0]{'salutation'} = &skip_to_cell_text( 
+1 ); # error on this line
        $member_info{'person'}[0]{'first_name'} =&skip_to_cell_text( 1
+ ); 
        $member_info{'person'}[0]{'middle_initial'} = &skip_to_cell_te
+xt( 1 );
[...]

[download]
The Dump: 
$VAR1 = {
          'modified_info' => {
                               'modified_date' => undef,
                               'modified_by' => undef
                             },
          'created_info' => {
                              'created_date' => undef,
                              'created_by' => undef
                            },
          'person' => [
                        0,
                        {
                          'middle_initial' => undef,
                          'salutation' => undef,
                          'leader' => undef,
                          'marital_status' => undef,
                          'date_of_birth' => undef,
                          'last_name' => undef,
                          'family_size' => undef,
                          'primary_language' => undef,
                          'default' => undef,
                          'secondary_language' => undef,
                          'home_days' => undef,
                          'first_name' => undef
                        }
                      ],

          'school' => [
                        0,
                        {
                          'graduation_date' => undef,
                          'school_name' => undef,
                          'school_type' => 'school'
                        },
                        1,
                        {
                          'graduation_date' => undef,
                          'school_name' => undef,
                          'school_type' => 'school1'
                        }
                      ],
          'mid' => undef
        };

[download]


The error:
Can't use string ("0") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use at ./prog line 136 (#1)
(F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references are disallowed. See perlref.

The Mystery:
It looks like it is a hash that points to an array that contains a hash, and that is what I want. The 0 is an array ref, not a hash. Why is my assignment causing an error?

In reply to Mistake in data structure use? by McLogic

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.