You're looking to make a dual scalar? That is, one that has a separate string and scalar value? If so, Scalar::Util does indeed have a dualvar() function.

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Jeff[japhy]Pinyan: Perl, regex, and perl hacker, who'd like a job (NYC-area)
s++=END;++y(;-P)}y js++=;shajsj<++y(p-q)}?print:??;