Hi Elisheva, Thanks for your replies. The code that created the file is relatively simple:

    use Data::Dumper;
    $Data::Dumper::Purity = 1;
    print "Saving media $media->{name}\n";
    open(FILE,">$media->{name}");
    print FILE Dumper($media);
    close FILE;
[download]

If you meant the code that was used to create the %media hash itself, that's more unwieldy to analyze. It's a large structure with things dropped in it from different subfunctions, it's not so easy to isolate out just a small part. I think the second reply has nailed it though. I need to use PDL::IO::Dumper (well, I need to read it first) Thanks again for the suggestions. Will go and give that a try.