#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use utf8; use Devel::Peek; use Data::Dumper; $Data::Dumper::Useqq = 1; my $s; { no utf8; $s = 'clé'; } utf8::upgrade($s); my %hash = ( $s => 0, ); my $key = (keys %hash)[0]; Dump($key); print Dumper($key); $hash{$s} = 1; $key = (keys %hash)[0]; Dump($key); print Dumper($key); utf8::upgrade($key); # does nothing Dump($key); print Dumper($key);