I feel pretty strongly that ref should not be used in most situations and should never be compared to "HASH" nor "ARRAY", for example. See (tye)Re: ref, no, maybe? for my arguments. See also Re: How do I test if a 'thing' is a hash (or array or scalar)? and (tye)Re: passing hashes and hash reference for a bit more on the subject.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")