Some things must have changed over the last few years... but now we have Scalar::Util, which includes the function dualvar:
dualvar NUM, STRING
Returns a scalar that has the value NUM in a numeric context and the value STRING in a string context. 
 $foo = dualvar 10, "Hello";
 $num = $foo + 2;                    # 12
 $str = $foo . " world";             # Hello world

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In reply to Re: How to make bi-modal variables like $! ? by bart
in thread How to make bi-modal variables like $! ? by bikeNomad

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