Or does { @_ } create an annoymous hash from the elements of the argument array and if so, how does that => $class fit in?
The braces here create a reference to an anonymous hash. The curly braces are probably the most overloaded symbols in Perl. Sometimes the usage is even ambiguous and perl doesn't do what you would expect.

=> is essentially the same as a comma except that sometimes you don't need to quote what's on the left side of it (which isn't relevant here).

You could also write this as:

sub new { my $class = shift; my %self = @_; bless \%self, $class; }
or
sub new { my $class = shift; my $self = { @_ }; bless $self, $class; }

In reply to Re: What means: "bless { @_ } => $class;"? by Thelonius
in thread What means: "bless { @_ } => $class;"? by hesco

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