I just tried my script on three other systems (SunOS 4.1.3, Solaris 2.4, HP-UX 9.07) and things work as advertized on those systems. So I'm ruling out a bug in my script. The bug occurs in the following instances for me: (MacPerl 5.0.6r1m) (1) my %refs = %reference; $refs{AU} = whatever; (2) my %refs; %refs = %reference; $refs{AU} = whatever; I haven't tried too much else. -- Gene