use strict; use warnings; use Test::More; use Scalar::Util qw(looks_like_number); my $x = 42; my $y = 'not a number'; cmp_ok(looks_like_number(\$x), '==', isNumber(\$x), 'agrees re ref to number'); cmp_ok(looks_like_number(\$y), '==', isNumber(\$y), 'agrees re ref to non-number'); done_testing(); sub isNumber { defined $_[0] or return 0; my $R = 1; local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { $R = 0; }; return ($_[0] < 0) ? $R : $R; } __END__ Outputs: not ok 1 - agrees re ref to number # Failed test 'agrees re ref to number' # at IsNumber.pl line 10. # got: # expected: 1 not ok 2 - agrees re ref to non-number # Failed test 'agrees re ref to non-number' # at IsNumber.pl line 11. # got: # expected: 1 1..2 # Looks like you failed 2 tests of 2.