It seems to me that instead of manipulating data structures you should be using an object-oriented approach: A European class/package, from which the German class/package inherits its language() etc. methods.

Inheritance will take care of your 'overriding' requirements.

To mock around with these concepts, use Class::Prototyped: 

   use Class::Prototyped;

   my $european = Class::Prototyped->new(
       language => 'English',
       food     => 'Europizza',
   );

   my $german = Class::Prototyped->new(
       'parent*' => $european,
       food      => 'Wiener Schnitzel',
   );

   my $bavarian = Class::Prototyped->new(
       'parent*' => $german,
   );

   print "Default language: ",
         $bavarian->language(), "\n";

   $bavarian->language("Bavarian");
   print "Explicitely set language: ",
         $bavarian->language(), "\n";

    print "Default food: ",
          $bavarian->food(), "\n";

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In reply to Re: deep copy, not deep create by saintmike
in thread deep copy, not deep create by horshack

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