$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my %x; my %y = (a => 1); $x{z} = %y; say $x{z}; ' 1/8 #### $ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my %x; my %y = (a => 1); $x{z} = \%y; say $x{z}; say $x{z}{a}; ' HASH(0x7fba8082b168) 1