Right, but my point is, what are you trying to achieve by calling this:

put_element($DATA{3}, 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'value');
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rather than this:

$DATA{3}{h}{i}{j}{k} = 'value'
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I don't see how the sub optimizes anything, or provides anything that a direct call does.

Unless you're calling it like this:

my @arr = qw(h i j k);
put_element($DATA{3}, @arr, 'value');
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Is that how you're using it?

cLive ;-)