No, I've never used them...they are far too complicating for my little brain :) ...it seems clearer to keep the arraryref/hashref seperate IMO.
Although I was just having a play about....
Code:
#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
my $phash = [ { HASH => 1, REF => 2 }, 'Element2', 'Element3', 'Element4' ];
print "$phash\n"; # It is an arrayref..ah but is it?
print "$phash->[1]\n"; # Hmm looks like an arrayref!
print "$phash->[0]\n"; # Ah but I'm a hashref :)
print "$phash->{HASH}\n"; # Erk I am a hashref...or am I?
print join ", ", grep !/HASH/, @$phash; # Non referenced elements