Or just start using it as $ref without moving it to another variable:

print join "\n",@$ref;   # treat it as an array
print $ref->[0];         # grab the first element
for my $l (@$ref) {
  print $l;
}                        # loop over it and do something
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You don't need to move it to another variable for it to be useful. You just need to know the syntax to dereference it on the fly.