use Path::Class; my $filename = "data.txt"; my $object = file($filename)->open('<:encoding(UTF-8)'); my %hash = ( 'handle' => $object); my $line1 = <$object>; my $line2 = readline($hash{'handle'}); my $line3 = <$hash{'handle'}>; my $line4 = <{$hash{'handle'}}>; print $line1, "\n"; print $line2, "\n"; print $line3, "\n"; print $line4, "\n"; close($object);