An example of the NetWallah's suggestion:

package Foo;

use strict;
use Exporter 'import';

# Export on demand, so the caller knows
# where these came from.
our @EXPORT_OK = qw(get_array populate_array);

{
    my @array; # can only be accessed in this block

    sub get_array { \@array }
    
    sub populate_array { @array = 'a' .. 'h' }
}

1;
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Then to try it in the Perl debgugger:

% perl -de0

Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.37
Editor support available.

Enter h or 'h h' for help, or 'man perldebug' for more help.

main::(-e:1):   0
  DB<1> use Foo qw(get_array populate_array)

  DB<2> x get_array()
0  ARRAY(0x7fa9ac81a298)
     empty array
  DB<3> populate_array()

  DB<4> x get_array()
0  ARRAY(0x7fa9ac81a298)
   0  'a'
   1  'b'
   2  'c'
   3  'd'
   4  'e'
   5  'f'
   6  'g'
   7  'h'
  DB<5>
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