GotToBTru (21apr15): c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my %h = qw(a 1 b 2 c 3 d 4 e 5 f 6); dd \%h; ;; my @hsr = \( @h{ qw(b d) } ); dd \@hsr; ;; ${ $hsr[0] } += 19; ${ $hsr[1] } += 42; dd \@hsr; dd \%h; " { a => 1, b => 2, c => 3, d => 4, e => 5, f => 6 } [\2, \4] [\21, \46] { a => 1, b => 21, c => 3, d => 46, e => 5, f => 6 }