#!/usr/bin/perl my %h = ( word1 =>[2,3], word2 =>[1,3], word3 =>[1,2] ); $h{word1} = [ $h{word2},$h{word3}]; # [[1,3],[1,2]] $h{word2} = [ $h{word1},$h{word3}]; # [[[1,3],[1,2]],[1,2]] $h{word3} = [ $h{word1},$h{word2}]; # [[[1,3],[1,2]],[[[1,3],[1,2]],[1,2]]] print @{ @{ $h{'word3'} }[0] }[0], "\n"; #### print @{ @{ $h{'word3'} }[0] }[0]->[0], "\n"; # prints "1" print @{ @{ $h{'word3'} }[0] }[0]->[1], "\n"; # prints "3"