#### _END__ Output: Before test test ... After test changed ... #### #### #!/usr/bin/env perl package MagicHash; require Tie::Hash; our @ISA = qw(Tie::Hash); sub TIEHASH { bless {}, shift } sub STORE { my ($self, $key, $newval) = @_; $self->{$key} = {key=>$key, value=>[$newval,$$newval]}; } sub FIRSTKEY { my ($self) = @_; keys %{$self}; my $first_key = each %{$self}; return undef unless defined $first_key; return $self->{$first_key}->{key}; } sub FETCH { my ($self, $key) = @_; my ($is_ref) = $key =~ s/^\\//; return $is_ref ? $self->{$key}->{value}->[0] : $self->{$key}->{value}->[1] ; } sub NEXTKEY { my ($self, $nextkey) = @_; my $next_key = each %{$self}; return undef unless defined $next_key; return $self->{$next_key}->{key}; } package main; use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; { my $test = 'test'; my $changed = 'changed'; my %hash = ( t => \$test ); print "Before: \$test = $test\n", Dumper \%hash; ${ $hash{t} } = 'changed'; print " After: \$test = $test\n", Dumper \%hash; } { my $test = 'test'; my $changed = 'changed'; tie my %hash, 'MagicHash'; %hash = ( t => \$test ); print "Tied Before: \$test = $test\n", Dumper \%hash; ${ $hash{'\t'} } = 'changed'; print "Tied After1: \$test = $test\n", Dumper \%hash; ${ $hash{'\t'} } = 'again'; print "Tied After2: \$test = $test\n", Dumper \%hash; $hash{'t'} = \'one more'; print "Tied After3: \$test = $test\n", Dumper \%hash; }