Re^2: Building an arbitrary-depth, multi-level hash

[Anonymous Monk]

my $p = \%hash;
...
$p = $p->{$item};

AH! Thank you, sir - you're a scholar and a gentleman. *THAT* is the thing that I'd been struggling toward. A thousand thanks, and I'm going to save this thing (I don't think I'm going to go as far as tattooing it on my forehead, but you never know...)