The key thing to remember is that you can only store a scalar as a data structure value. So in the context of an array each element is a scalar - the element's value may reference something more interesting like another array, but the value is a scalar.

You may find it helps to assign the reference to a temporary variable with a suitable name even in trivial cases so that you make it clear to yourself that what you are dealing with is a reference. Only the very innermost element can be a non-reference scalar value (a string or number for example).

It may help to show us some of the code and the data structures that give you grief so we have a concrete example to work with that applies to what you are using.

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