A very general approach: 
package foo;

use strict;
use warnings;

sub new {
    my $class = shift;
    my $self  = {};
    $self->{data}   = undef;
    bless ($self, $class);
    return $self;
}

# setter and getter
sub data {
  my ( $self, $attr ) = @_;
  $self->{'data'}->{$attr} = $attr if (defined($attr));
  return $self->{'data'}->{$attr};
}
1;
__END__

[download]
$ perl -l
use foo;
use strict;
use warnings;

my $foo = foo::->new();
$foo->data('bar', 42);
print $foo->data('bar');
__END__
bar

[download]
Update: Added to make a complete working sample.
--
Andreas

In reply to Re: a simple matter of elegance by andreas1234567
in thread a simple matter of elegance by spiros

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