use strict; use warnings; use Scalar::Util qw(reftype); use Data::Dumper; my $oWkBook = { students =>[ {fname=>'joe',lname=>'bloe',age=>'18'}, {fname=>'jill',lname=>'bill',age=>'16'}, ], teachers => [ {fname=>'joe',lname=>'sloe',age=>'38'}, {fname=>'jill',lname=>'sill',age=>'36'}, ], admins =>[ {fname=>'koe',lname=>'moe',age=>'58'}, {fname=>'dill',lname=>'mill',age=>'56'}, ], }; print reftype($oWkBook); my @test = getScalars($oWkBook); for (@test) { $$_ .= "test"; } my $link = \$oWkBook->{students}->[0]->{fname}; print $link; $$link .= "test"; print Dumper($oWkBook); print Dumper(@test); sub getScalars { my $it = shift; my $type = reftype($it); my @out; if (defined $type && $type eq "HASH") { for my $key (keys %$it) { if (!defined reftype($it->{$key})) { push @out, \$it->{$key}; } else { push @out, getScalars($it->{$key}); } } } elsif (defined $type && $type eq "ARRAY") { for ( @$it ) { if (!defined reftype($_)) { push @out, \$_; } else { push @out, getScalars($_); } } } elsif (defined $type && $type eq "SCALAR") { push @out, $it; } else { return \$it; } return @out; }