How to print hash of anonymous hashes?

Question

How would I get value of stones if hash structure is as follows?

%HoA = 
(
[stones    => "ruby"],
[metal     => "gold"],
);

I am trying to get using print $HoA->{stones};, but no value is returned.

Answer 1

The problem is that the members of %HoA are arrays, not hashes. In fact, what you have is a hash with one element. The key of that element is a reference to an array holding two elements: "stones" and "ruby". The value of that element is a reference to an array holding two elements: "metal" and "gold".

I'm guessing you want a hash that will contain a list of stones, a list of metals etc. The way to do that is:

%HoA = 
(
    stones    => ["ruby"],
    metal     => ["gold"],
);

Now $HoA{stones} is a reference to an array containing the single element "ruby".

print @($HoA{stones});

should give you:

ruby