Naturally GrandFather is quite correct, BUT, I looked at his response and it took a moment to see that he was de-referencing the hash reference that is being returned.

For precisely this reason, it is suggested in the book "Perl Best Practices" by thedamian (see p228-229) that when you need to use "prefix dereferencing" such as this, that you used braces around the reference:

%{$hTableData}
[download]

is more noticeable, and thus readable than:

%$hTableData
[download]

It makes the dereferencing easier to see in this case, and getting into this habit can make your dereferencing far easier to understand as you meet more complexes cases.

I must also agree that perldsc is a most useful piece of reading. Welcome to the monastery!

jdtoronto