I've found the Programming Language Examples alike Cookbook to be a particularly handy reference. For example, an excerpt on creating a hash:

#-----------------------------
%age = ( "Nat",   24,
         "Jules", 25,
         "Josh",  17  );
#-----------------------------
$age{"Nat"}   = 24;
$age{"Jules"} = 25;
$age{"Josh"}  = 17;
#-----------------------------
%food_color = (
               "Apple"  => "red",
               "Banana" => "yellow",
               "Lemon"  => "yellow",
               "Carrot" => "orange"
              );
#-----------------------------
%food_color = (
                Apple  => "red",
                Banana => "yellow",
                Lemon  => "yellow",
                Carrot => "orange"
               );
#-----------------------------
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