my @array = qw(a b c);
my %hash;

$hash{ key } = \@array;
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Or alternatively:

my %hash = (
    foo => [ 'bar', 'baz', 'qux' ],
    anything => [ 'else', 'you', 'want', 'to', 'include' ]
);
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Either way works, your choice.
~Thomas~ I believe that the source code to life is written in Perl :-)

See perlref and Modern Perl

Making References
References can be created in several ways.

1.  By using the backslash operator on a variable, subroutine, or valu
+e.
    (This works much like the & (address-of) operator in C.) This
    typically creates *another* reference to a variable, because there
+'s
    already a reference to the variable in the symbol table. But the
    symbol table reference might go away, and you'll still have the
    reference that the backslash returned. Here are some examples:

        $scalarref = \$foo;
        $arrayref  = \@ARGV;
        $hashref   = \%ENV;
        $coderef   = \&handler;
        $globref   = \*foo;
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Is it possible to assign a array reference as a value to a hash key ?

You can use array references as keys in just the way you might guess that you can... the limitation is that you can't retrieve the key and then dereference it. This is because hash keys are strings by definition and when you use a reference as a key, it stringifies the reference first.

You probably want Tie::Refhash to do what you want to do.

I am talking about the "value" to a hash key not key as an array reference.

I am able to deference the value when I use it as an array reference. Thanks for the suggestions.

It is unclear whether you consider your (updated) question answered.

To complete stevieb's example, you can retrieve a value thusly:

my $retrieve =   $hash{ key } -> [1] ; # returns "b" (The "->" is opti
+onal)
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             I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.
                   -SNL