But isn't this already as simple as you could get? Here's the code I've played with:

use Data::Dumper;

my $bhash = bless {
                  key1 => 'val1',
                  key2 => 'val2'
                 }, 'FOO';

my %uhash = %$bhash;

print Dumper($bhash);
print Dumper(\%uhash);

print "done\n";
[download]

And the output is:

$VAR1 = bless( {
                 'key1' => 'val1',
                 'key2' => 'val2'
               }, 'FOO' );
$VAR1 = {
          'key1' => 'val1',
          'key2' => 'val2'
        };
done
[download]

The bless() is used to associate the object a reference points to with a package that defines the object class. I am frankly not aware of any operator in Perl for 'curse' or 'unbless'.

Update: mp when you use the bless() operator on a hashref like so:

my %ahash = (
   key1 => 1,
   key2 => 2
);
bless \%ahash, 'FOO';
[download]

You end up 'labeling' or 'associating' the %ahash structure with the package 'FOO'. Here's the code to prove this:

use Devel::Peek 'Dump';
use Data::Dumper;

my %ahash = (
             key1 => 'val1',
             key2 => 'val2'
             );

print "ORIGINAL HASH:\n";
print Dumper(\%ahash) ."\n";
print Dump(\%ahash) ."\n\n";

my $bhash = bless \%ahash, 'FOO';

print "ORIGINAL HASH (after blessing, note it's now been associated wi
+th the 'FOO' package!!):\n";
print Dumper(\%ahash) ."\n";
print Dump(\%ahash) ."\n\n";
[download]

Which when you run it produces this output:

ORIGINAL HASH:
$VAR1 = {
          'key1' => 'val1',
          'key2' => 'val2'
        };

SV = RV(0x3b828) at 0x2307c
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (TEMP,ROK)
  RV = 0x2dbc4
  SV = PVHV(0x8ea80) at 0x2dbc4
    REFCNT = 2
    FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,SHAREKEYS)
    IV = 2
    NV = 0
    ARRAY = 0x25160  (0:6, 1:2)
    hash quality = 150.0%
    KEYS = 2
    FILL = 2
    MAX = 7
    RITER = -1
    EITER = 0x0
    Elt "key1" HASH = 0x3e4d49
    SV = PV(0x23444) at 0x2316c
      REFCNT = 1
      FLAGS = (POK,pPOK)
      PV = 0x952b8 "val1"\0
      CUR = 4
      LEN = 5
    Elt "key2" HASH = 0x3e4d4a
    SV = PV(0x2342c) at 0x23250
      REFCNT = 1
      FLAGS = (POK,pPOK)
      PV = 0x952e8 "val2"\0
      CUR = 4
      LEN = 5


ORIGINAL HASH (after blessing, note it's now been associated with the 
+'FOO' package!!):
$VAR1 = bless( {
                 'key1' => 'val1',
                 'key2' => 'val2'
               }, 'FOO' );

SV = RV(0x3b828) at 0x2307c
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (TEMP,ROK)
  RV = 0x2dbc4
  SV = PVHV(0x8ea80) at 0x2dbc4
    REFCNT = 3
    FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,OBJECT,SHAREKEYS)
    IV = 2
    NV = 0
    STASH = 0x59b1c     "FOO"
    ARRAY = 0x25160  (0:6, 1:2)
    hash quality = 150.0%
    KEYS = 2
    FILL = 2
    MAX = 7
    RITER = -1
    EITER = 0x0
    Elt "key1" HASH = 0x3e4d49
    SV = PV(0x23444) at 0x2316c
      REFCNT = 1
      FLAGS = (POK,pPOK)
      PV = 0x952b8 "val1"\0
      CUR = 4
      LEN = 5
    Elt "key2" HASH = 0x3e4d4a
    SV = PV(0x2342c) at 0x23250
      REFCNT = 1
      FLAGS = (POK,pPOK)
      PV = 0x952e8 "val2"\0
      CUR = 4
      LEN = 5
[download]

Note that soon after the call to the 'bless' operator, the original hash structure was altered. There's now been a new 'STASH' field added to the hash RV structure. Again, as far as I know there's no means in current version of Perl to simply yank that field from the underlying hash structure. I'll play some more with this to see if there's a way of obtaining an unblessed structure without unnecessary copying however.

_____________________

# Under Construction
[download]

---

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