#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict; use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my $arr = 
    { a => 
          { b => 'c', 
            d => 
                { e => 
                      { x => 'y', 
                        k => [ 'A'...'Z'],
                      }
                } ,
           }, 
           f => 
                { g => 'h', 
                  i => 'm' 
                }
     };
sub arr_parse {
    my $data = shift;
    my @params = @_;
    my $newdata = $data;
    foreach my $parm (@params) {
        if (ref $newdata eq 'ARRAY') {
            $newdata = $newdata->[$parm] 
        } elsif (ref $newdata eq 'HASH') {
            $newdata = $newdata->{$parm}
        } else {
            last
        }
    }
    return $newdata
}

my $retval = arr_parse( $arr, qw{a d e x} );
print Dumper( $retval ) . "\n";
my $retval2 = arr_parse( $arr, qw{a d e k 15} );
print Dumper( $retval2 ) . "\n";
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