I am interested in creating a hash of hashes that will contain variables that are set by the user.

I have put this together to create a hash of a variable (population size, @total) that is sent into this subroutine. $tester is also sent into the array and is the number of populations that the user creates.

sub splitter {

    my %hasher = ();
    my $increase = 0;
    my $input = "";

    while ($tester--) {
        $increase ++;
        push @key, $increase;
    }

    @hasher{@key} = @total;

    foreach $key (sort { $a <=> $b } keys %hasher) {
        print "Population #$key = $hasher{$key}\n";
    }
    

    while () {
        print "Enter the population you will act on: ";
        chomp ($input = <STDIN>);
        $output = $hasher{$input}; #references a specific value in the
+ hash. 
        print "$output BEFORE \n";
        $output = $output + 8;
        print "$output AFTER\n";
        $hasher{$input} = $output; #returns the modified value to the 
+hash

        foreach $key (sort { $a <=> $b } keys %hasher) {
            print "Population #$key = $hasher{$key}\n";
        }
    return $output;
    }
}
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Later in the code, I take the $output value and turn it into an array that is modified, and i want to then return it to the hash in the following format:
A: Population number
1. Listing of individuals from 1…n (user defined) ie. @array = (1 … $population);
2. Listing of genetic marker associated with each individual (not yet coded)

The other thing I wanted to do, is be able to modify the arrays at the lower level of the hash, as I have done for my simple hash above. Something I have no idea how to do.

I have only been at this two weeks, and this is my first attempt at programming. Any help on any aspect of this post would be greatly appreciated. Thanks monks!