note tlm <p>There's an typo in the code; the code block in the <code>reduce</code> statement should be <code> { \($$a->{$b}) } </code> Also, when I tried the code as given (after fixing the above typo), I got the error: <code> % perl rec_walk.pl Can't call method "List::Util::reduce" on unblessed reference at rec_walk.pl line 9. </code> Here's the full code of the script that caused that error: <code> use strict; my %myhash; $myhash{bedrock}{flintstone}{fred} = 3; my $ref = pointer_to_element(\%myhash, qw(bedrock flintstone fred)); sub pointer_to_element { require List::Util; return List::Util::reduce { \($$a->{$b}) } \shift, @_; } </code> I couldn't figure out why the error, so I switched the code to <code> use List::Util 'reduce'; sub pointer_to_element { return reduce { \($$a->{$b}) } \shift, @_; } </code> and it worked great. Tres cool.</p> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-439528"> <p><small>the lowliest monk</small></p> </div></div> 443584 443584