Yes, that can be confusing until you get used to it. The thing to keep in mind is that the values of a hash (or an array) can only be scalars. A scalar is always a single "thing": a number, a string, or a reference -- never a complex structure made of multiple things. So when we talk about something like, "a hash of hashes of arrays," that's really shorthand for, "a hash of references to hashes containing references to arrays."

Aaron B.
My Woefully Neglected Blog, where I occasionally mention Perl.

In reply to Re^5: Changing a returned hashref by aaron_baugher
in thread Changing a returned hashref by Anonymous Monk

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