package foo;

sub getdata { return *DATA }

1;
__DATA__
this data is in foo

##</code><code>##

use foo;

my $d = foo->getdata;

print "foo's data  - ", <$d>;
print "main's data - ", <DATA>;

__DATA__
this data is in main

##</code><code>##

foo's data  - this data is in foo
main's data - this data is in main