According to the documentation for Spreadsheet::Read, the ReadData function returns a reference to an array. Typically, you would assign it to a scalar, as demonstrated in the SYNOPSIS: 
use Spreadsheet::Read;
my $ref = ReadData('file.xls');

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See also: perlreftut

In reply to Re: Dereferencing within Hash Assignment by toolic
in thread Dereferencing within Hash Assignment by Comment

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