The syntax that creates the copy, @columns , was sufficient for what I need to do in this case (basically iterate through a text file and read each space delimited value into a multi-dimensional array). However, it's good to know that these array pointers can be controled so precicely. Never knew that you could assign a 2d array by value or by reference, so to speak. Thank you for making this distinction. I'll definately reference this post when I need to create it as a pointer. I appreciate the help.