print $data->[0];

print @{$data}[0];

--
my $chainsaw = 'Perl';

You want

${$data}[0]
[download]

as the exact equivalent of

$data->[0]
[download]

Otherwise you've just committed the famous @foo[3] sin, which much literature speaks of.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

Nope

I just find print $data->[0] looks more like dereferencing.

not that i can think of. there might be others to correct me, though.

 print @{$data}[0] is too many bracey-curly-making-me-hit-shift characters. they perform the same tasks.

Actually, @{$data}[0] and $data->[0] perform slightly different tasks. The former creates an array containing one element (hence the @ at the start), whilst the latter creates a scalar (hence the $ at the start).

It becomes apparent with more complex data structures, such as AoAoAoAoAoAoA's or HoHoHoHoHoHoHoH's, or any mutant variation thereof.      $data->[0]->[1]->[3]->[1]->[41]->[6] over      ${${${${${${$data}[0]}[1]}[3]}[1]}[41]}[6] Unless you're really good at counting brackets, I'd stick with the C-style dereferencing via '->'