i am developing a web management system and am working with a hash of hashes of lists as so: $hashoffiles->{$streamID}->{$filename} = (modsize, group, user etc...) I am sure that i am constructing them correctly but when i try to loop though the second key i get the following error.

Be less sure, or update your example code.

$foo->{bar}->{baz} is a scalar, and when you assign to a scalar, there is scalar context. In scalar context, a list evaluates to its last element.
You can't have a hash of hashes of lists, but you can have a hash of hashes of arrays. A list is always temporary, for storing, you need an array.

However, in your code you use square brackets, and do it the right way. I don't see the problem, and it would be a LOT easier for us if you added a note so we know which line is line 176. In the meanwhile, try dumping your data structure using Data::Dumper to see if it contains what you want it to.

U28geW91IGNhbiBhbGwgcm90MTMgY
W5kIHBhY2soKS4gQnV0IGRvIHlvdS
ByZWNvZ25pc2UgQmFzZTY0IHdoZW4
geW91IHNlZSBpdD8gIC0tIEp1ZXJk