When you see an index like [0] in Perl code, this is a RED alert that probably something is wrong, not always but, more likely than not!!

You have an array of "pointers" to anon hashes. Data::Dumper is a SUPER cool thing to help visualize what is going on.

Below, I have a foreach loop that processes every hash_ref in @rec.
$hash_ref->{'name'} yields the name in that record
@{$hash_ref->{'kids'}} is a bit trickier. If this was just one kid, then it would work like a name. But there are multiple kids and this is an array of kids.
Below I show how to print @demo. $hash_ref->{'kids'} fetches one thing just like accessing $hash_ref->{'name'} did. But now we have to de-reference that single thing which is a "pointer" to array. In Perl when you have a "subscripted thing" and you want to de-reference it, you need to enclose it in brackets,{}. I did that, then I said that this is an array de-reference '@' and bingo, this is now just like printing @demo. In other words, you need to tell "@" what to operate upon. @$hash_ref->{'kids'} would mean something completely different. I want "@" to operate not just upon the value $hash_ref, but upon the whole thing that {$hash_ref->{'kids'}} "points to".

An array in a scalar context is the number of things in that array. I think others have covered that point.

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

my @demo =('xyz', 'qrs');
my @rec = (
              {
                name => 'Nancy',
                address => 613,
                kids => ['abc',  'def'],
              },
     
              { name => "Betty",
                address => 845,
                kids => ['xyz',  'qrs'],
              },     
          );  

print Dumper \@rec;
print "DEMO: @demo\n";

foreach my $hash_ref (@rec)
{
    print "$hash_ref->{'name'} struggles with: ",
          "@{$hash_ref->{'kids'}}\n";
}

__END__
$VAR1 = [
          {
            'name' => 'Nancy',
            'kids' => [
                        'abc',
                        'def'
                      ],
            'address' => 613
          },
          {
            'name' => 'Betty',
            'kids' => [
                        'xyz',
                        'qrs'
                      ],
            'address' => 845
          }
        ];
DEMO: xyz qrs
Nancy struggles with: abc def
Betty struggles with: xyz qrs
[download]

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