my $file = '174621_testdb2_CanA.txt'; # slurp all the content into the scalar my $content = do { local ( @ARGV, $/ ) = $file; <> }; # needed as $VAR1 is used in the dump my $VAR1; # eval the content to get the Perl datastructure eval $content; print $VAR1->[0]->{SDOM_REFERENCE};