note moritz <c>$a{b}</c> accesses the hash <c>%a</c>, which has no relation to the variable <c>$a</c>. <c>$a->{b}</c> assumes that <c>$a</c> is a hash reference, and accesses the element <c>b</c> of it. <p>Always <c>use strict</c>, it will catch such errors if you happen to write the wrong one (and the other one isn't declared). <!-- Node text goes above. Div tags should contain sig only --> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-616540"> [http://perl6.org/|Perl 6 - the future is here, just unevenly distributed] </div></div> 985226 985226