@rec is an array of hashrefs, therefore $ref[0] is a hashref. The arrow is optional here, we have two possible ways to get the value of the kids key. The value is an arrayref, so we dereference it with @{} to get the array. And scalar applied to a list an array returns the number of elements in it.

Update: rephrased because of almut's reply.

In reply to Re^3: print array of hashes by choroba
in thread print array of hashes by fionbarr

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