use warnings; use strict; use Data::Dumper; use Test::More qw(no_plan); package Foo; sub new {bless {'a' => 1}, $_[0]}; package main; my $foo = Foo->new(); my $foo_dumped_evaled; $foo_dumped_evaled = eval(Dumper($foo)); isa_ok($foo_dumped_evaled,'Foo'); #fails $foo_dumped_evaled = eval{Dumper($foo)}; isa_ok($foo_dumped_evaled,'Foo'); #fails $foo_dumped_evaled = bless( { 'a' => 1 }, 'Foo' ); isa_ok($foo_dumped_evaled,'Foo'); #fails print Dumper($foo); #### not ok 1 - The object isa Foo # Failed test (dumperIntro.pl at line 14) # The object isn't defined not ok 2 - The object isa Foo # Failed test (dumperIntro.pl at line 17) # The object isn't a reference ok 3 - The object isa Foo $VAR1 = bless( { 'a' => 1 }, 'Foo' ); 1..3 # Looks like you failed 2 tests of 3.