_find()

• We have a data structure, of arbitrarily nested hash and array refs
• The find method gives us a reference to a reference into that data structure

sub _find {
    # Return a reference to the reference
    # that points to the hash-ref
    # that contains the desired item.

    my $menu = shift;
    my $descRE = shift;

    foreach my $entry (@$menu) {
        next if ref($entry) eq 'ARRAY';

        if (defined $entry->{menu}) {
            # recursive call to _find
            my $found = _find($entry->{menu}, $descRE);
            return $found if $found;
        }

        return \$entry 
            if $entry->{desc} =~ $descRE;
    }
}