#!/usr/bin/env perl5 use strict; use warnings; my $struct = { hashRef => { fruit => 'apple', veggie => 'corn' }, arrayRef => [ qw(1 2 3 4 5) ], }; # These two are the same; perl adds the implicit '->' to the first and # turns it into the second internally print $struct->{hashRef}{fruit}, "\n"; print $struct->{hashRef}->{fruit}, "\n"; # Now we'll deref the $struct->{hashRef} hash reference via ${} instead # of -> print ${$struct->{hashRef}}{fruit}, "\n"; # And for the coup de grace, we'll deref $struct via ${} instead of -> # too. print ${${$struct}{hashRef}}{fruit}, "\n";