perl -Mstrict -MData::Dumper -we ' package Test; sub new { my $class = shift; my $stuff = { shift() => 1}; bless $stuff, $class; return $stuff; } package Main; my $t = [ Test->new("foo"), Test->new("bar"), Test->new("baz"), ]; print "Ref: " . ref($t) . "\n"; print Data::Dumper->Dump([$t], ["for_LanX"]) . "\n"; ' __output__ Ref: ARRAY $for_LanX = [ bless( { 'foo' => 1 }, 'Test' ), bless( { 'bar' => 1 }, 'Test' ), bless( { 'baz' => 1 }, 'Test' ) ];