note barrd <blockquote><i> ..."dereferencing" a variable... </i></blockquote> It isn't dereferencing a 'variable' but a subroutine. <blockquote><i> "Take the value of $functions{$doit} and treat it as a sub name" Is that about right? </i></blockquote> More or less, yeah. But I have to admit that my powers of syntax explaining are pretty poor, I understand in my head what is going on but I don't want to lead you down the garden path with my crap explanations. There are many people here who could explain far more eloquently what is going on and hopefully one of them will step in to help both of us ;) 303803 303807