The author got really tired of statements that looked like: $heap->{job}{$job} = { source => $source, dest => $destination, options => $options, }; and later: if ($heap->{job}{$job}{options}{wibble} eq $something_else) { # do something... } This module is meant to simplify this sort of things, with optional persistence as a bonus. WWW: http://search.cpan.org/dist/Data-Remember/