I threw this together to encompass the whole system. Hopefully this provides enough information.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

### BEGINNING STRUCTURE
my %t_type = (

    'a' => {
        one => {low => 1000, high => 3000, percent => 25},
        two => {low => 200,high => 2000, percent => 30},
        three => {low => 1000,high => 6000, percent => 40},
        four => {low => 300,high => 1800, percent => 35},
        five => {low => 10, high => 40, percent => 60},
        six => {low => 2, high => 12, percent => 50},
        seven => [
            {select => 'small',low => 3,high => 3,percent => 30},
        ],
    },
    
    'b' => {
        one => {low => 1000, high => 3000, percent => 25},
        two => {low => 200,high => 2000, percent => 30},
        three => {low => 1000,high => 6000, percent => 40},
        four => {low => 300,high => 1800, percent => 35},
        five => {low => 10, high => 40, percent => 60},
        six => {low => 2, high => 12, percent => 50},
        seven => [
            {select => 'medium',low => 1,high => 1,percent => 10},
            {select => 'large',low => 1,high => 1,percent => 10},
        ],
    },
);

print "\t BEFORE\n";
print "data...\n";
print "$t_type{'b'}{'seven'}[0]->{'select'} \n";

foreach my $item ( @{$t_type{b}{seven}} ) {  
    print "... $item->{'select'}\n";
}


print "\n\t AFTER\n";
print "creating file...\n";

my $xsimple = XML::Simple->new();

open(L, ">tt.xml");
print L $xsimple->XMLout(\%t_type,
                       noattr => 1,
                       xmldecl => '<?xml version="1.0"?>',
                       GroupTags => { 'seven' => 'select' }
                       );       
close(L);

print "reading file...\n";

%t_type = ();

my $t_type = XMLin('tt.xml',GroupTags => { 'seven' => 'select' });
%t_type = \$t_type;
[download]

%t_type = \$t_type;
How do I dereference back into the original structure? So I can access it the same way?

### lets test that returned structure
# yep its the same. must be a referrence problem?
print "dumping structure...\n";
print Dumper($t_type);
[download]

It appears to print the original hash except for the $VAR1 not being $t_type.
Then try to print it the same as before but doesn't work.

print "data...\n";

print "$t_type{'b'}{'seven'}[0]->{'select'} \n";

foreach my $item ( @{$t_type{b}{seven}} ) {  
    print "... $item->{'select'}\n";
}
[download]

What do I need to do?