Data::Dumper is useful for investigating unknown data structures.

Dummy ini file for testing:

$ cat > pm_config_any.ini
some_key=qwerty
password=Pa55w0rd
other_key=zxcvbn
[download]

Code to see full $cfg structure and the specific item you want:

$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E '
use Config::Any;
use Data::Dumper;
my $pw_ini_file = q{./pm_config_any.ini};
my @files = ($pw_ini_file);
my $cfg = Config::Any->load_files({files => \@files, use_ext => 1});
say q{Full $cfg structure:};
say Dumper $cfg;
say q{Password: }, $cfg->[0]{$pw_ini_file}{password};
'
Full $cfg structure:
$VAR1 = [
          {
            './pm_config_any.ini' => {
                                       'password' => 'Pa55w0rd',
                                       'some_key' => 'qwerty',
                                       'other_key' => 'zxcvbn'
                                     }
          }
        ];

Password: Pa55w0rd
[download]

Your code worked for the above .ini file when i added use feature "say". However for my password.ini file it still prints the password as a reference. (only the last line though). Any idea why this is happening? Also how would i store this into a string.

say q{Password: }, $cfg->[0]{$pw_ini_file}{password};
[download]

Your code worked for the above .ini file when i added use feature "say".

It sounds like you've got a handle on that. feature shows other ways to achieve this: you may have read that already.

However for my password.ini file it still prints the password as a reference. (only the last line though). Any idea why this is happening?

In this type of situation, you should show the output you received. The page "How do I post a question effectively?" explains this along with other useful advice: I strongly recommend you read it. Not doing so is likely to result in responses like "Sorry, I don't have the Mental::Telepathy module installed on my system.". :-)

I'll guess your output looked something like:

Full $cfg structure:
$VAR1 = [
          {
            'C:\wamp\www\password.ini' => {
                                       'password' => {
                                                       'password' => '
+mypass'
                                                     }
                                     }
          }
        ];

Password: HASH(0x7f9a03843da8)
[download]

Side issue: with a double-quoted string you need to escape all the special characters, with a single-quoted string you don't. Compare "C:\\wamp\\www\\password.ini" with 'C:\wamp\www\password.ini'. Take a look at Quote-Like Operators in perlop for more details.

Using a section header (e.g. [password]) adds an additional level to your data structure. Using this ini file:

[password]
password=mypass
[other_section]
other_key=other_value
[download]

I get this output:

Full $cfg structure:
$VAR1 = [
          {
            './pm_config_any.ini' => {
                                       'other_section' => {
                                                            'other_key
+' => 'other_value'
                                                          },
                                       'password' => {
                                                       'password' => '
+mypass'
                                                     }
                                     }
          }
        ];
[download]

So, to get the value you're after you'll need:

say q{Password: }, $cfg->[0]{$pw_ini_file}{password}{password};
[download]

Also how would i store this into a string.

That's a basic assignment - you don't need to do anything special:

my $ini_password = $cfg->[0]{$pw_ini_file}{password}{password};
say $ini_password;
[download]

-- Ken

p in

use strict; 
use warnings; 
use Config::Any;
my @files = ("test.cfg.ini");# $files[0]="C:\\wamp\\www\\password.ini"
+;
my $cfg = Config::Any->load_files({files =>\@files,use_ext => 1  }); 
for my $c (@$cfg){
  for my $f (keys %$c){
     print "File $f has the following :\n";
     for my $section(keys %{$c->{$f}}){
       print " in Section $section:\n";
       for my $k2 (keys %{$c->{$f}{$section}}){
         print "\t$k2=" . $c->{$f}{$section}{$k2} . "\n";
       }
     }
  }
}
}
[download]

 print $cfg->[0]{'test.cfg.ini'}{password}{password} . "\n"; # prints 
+'mypass'
[download]

I used the following code(hard coded)

use strict; 
use warnings; 
use Config::Any;
my @files = ("C:\\wamp\\password.ini");
my $cfg = Config::Any->load_files({files =>\@files,use_ext => 1  }); 
print $cfg->[0]{'password.ini'}{password}{password} . "\n"; # prints
[download]

However it throws an error saying

Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at caller.pl
+ line 39.
[download]

You can use the for-loops in my earlier message to figure out what it is expecting, but I suspect it is something like this:

  print $cfg->[0]{"C:\\wamp\\password.ini"}{password}{password} . "\n"
+; #
[download]

             I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.
                   -SNL

You guys are making this all far more difficult than it needs to be.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Config::Any;

#By the way, load_files is only useful for multiple files, in which ca
+se you will have to change the code below. For only one file, load() 
+is good enough.
my $cfg = Config::Any->load( "C:\\wamp\\www\\password.ini" );

#Simply printing $cfg will print its reference, like you asked for.
#Config::Any returns a hashref(when used with [cpan://Config::Any::INI
+] which interfaces to [cpan://Config::Tiny]), so you need to access i
+t like one.
print $cfg->{password}->{password};
[download]

The docs for Config::any can be a bit confusing for the beginning programmer, I know.

Thanks for the reponse. But when i try load it says

Can't locate object method "load" via package "Config::Any" at caller.
+pl line 15
[download]

Also is there any way to upvote answers which you feel are good like in stackoverflow?

load() is not a documented method of Config::Any. Developers provide an interface for you to interact with their modules (e.g. Config::Any's Interface) which you can generally expect to be stable across versions of a module: these are the only methods you should use. They may write other methods for the implementation of their modules: these may change at any time without notice. Perhaps load() was such a method at one time.

Voting/Experience System explains about voting - there's a link to this in the panel on the right-hand side in the Information section.

-- Ken