What's the best Perl practice for returning hashes from functions?

Question

I am mulling over a best practice for passing hash references for return data to/from functions.

On the one hand, it seems intuitive to pass only input values to a fun

Answer 1

If it's getting complicated enough that both the callsite and the called function are paying for it (because you have to think/write more every time you use it), why not just use an object?

my $results = $this->getData('input');

$results->key_value_thingies;
$results->listy_thingies;

If making an object is "too complicated" then start using Moose so that it no longer is.