tlegrady@rw-q318:~$ perl -d t.pl Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.3 Editor support available. Enter h or `h h' for help, or `man perldebug' for more help. main::(t.pl:5): my $data = [ DB<1> n main::(t.pl:16): my $test = $data->{ name }; DB<1> x $data 0 ARRAY(0x70b910) 0 HASH(0x70b970) 'name' => 'Mary' DB<2> x $data->[0] 0 HASH(0x70b970) 'name' => 'Mary' DB<3> x $data->[0]{name} 0 'Mary'