First, use the ref() function. If you need more power, use the reftype() function from Scalar::Util. Second, @_[0] should be written as $_[0].
Jeff japhy Pinyan,
P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.:
Perl,
regex,
and perlhacker How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart