use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

sub ret_hash {
    return nick => 1;
}

my %hash = ret_hash();
print Dumper(\%hash);

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

sub ret_hash {
    return {nick => 1};
}

my $hash = ret_hash();
print Dumper($hash);