#!/usr/bin/perl -- use diagnostics; use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dump; my %sampleHash = (); my @array1 = ('a','b','c'); my @array2 = ("x","y","z","s"); $sampleHash{"hash1"} = @array1; $sampleHash{"hash2"} = @array2; dd \%sampleHash; print $sampleHash{"hash1"}[0]; __END__ $ perl fudge { hash1 => 3, hash2 => 4 } Can't use string ("3") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in use at fudge line 14 (#1) (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references are disallowed. See perlref. Uncaught exception from user code: Can't use string ("3") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in use at fudge line 14.