Boris,

Just to be consistant with the original poster's code style, whether that's the way you do it or not (it happens to be the way I do things, but it seems I'm in the minority ;->), the arrow operator after a close-brace is not required:

  print $valid_names->{SCM555}{email};
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Rhodium - note, too, that the quotes inside the braces are optional. I prefer without the quotes (unless required - which they are for certain things), but I do recommend consistancy, even if you disagree with other aspects of my coding style ;-)

  print $valid_names->{'SCM555'}{'email'};
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