{ package Foo; our $x = undef; our @x = qw( alpha beta gamma ); } { package Bar; our @x = qw( alpha beta gamma ); } #### use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; warn "Perl version is '$]'\n"; { package Foo; our $x = undef; our @x = qw( alpha beta gamma ); } { package Bar; our @x = qw( alpha beta gamma ); } symdump('Foo','x'); symdump('Bar','x'); sub symdump { my ($pkg, $symbol) = @_; local(*SYM) = do { no strict 'refs'; ${*{"$pkg\::"}}{$symbol}; }; foreach my $slot (qw( SCALAR ARRAY HASH )) { warn Data::Dumper->Dump( [*SYM{$slot}], [ "\${ \*{\$$pkg\::{$symbol}}{$slot} }" ] ); } } __END__ Perl version is '5.008005' ${ *{$Foo::{x}}{SCALAR} } = \undef; ${ *{$Foo::{x}}{ARRAY} } = [ 'alpha', 'beta', 'gamma' ]; ${ *{$Foo::{x}}{HASH} } = undef; ${ *{$Bar::{x}}{SCALAR} } = \undef; ${ *{$Bar::{x}}{ARRAY} } = [ 'alpha', 'beta', 'gamma' ]; ${ *{$Bar::{x}}{HASH} } = undef;