Hello all, I am a relatively inexperienced Perl programmer (still working my way through Intermediate Perl).
While working on using DBM::Deep, I noticed some behavior I cannot explain.
I am using DBM::Deep 0.983 because there are no later versions available from ActiveState. Here is my code: 
#!/perl/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

use DBM::Deep;
use Data::Dumper;

unlink("test.db");
my $database = DBM::Deep->new(
               file => "test.db",
            locking => 1,
          autoflush => 1 );

# Test array that contains a hash reference as an element
my @array  = ("Mac Address", "PCNAME", 1, 1187000400, { 'bob' => 23, '
+alice' => 20 });
print("\@array\n", Dumper(\@array));    # Shows the contents of the ar
+ray, with no blessed references and nothing tied to the DBM::Deep dat
+abase

$database->{141} = \@array;    # Assigns the array reference as a valu
+e of the DBM::Deep database hash
print("\@array\n", Dumper(\@array));    # Now the original array's int
+ernal hash is tied or blessed or something to the database

my $temp = $database->{141}->export;    # Export should return a refer
+ence to an array in which the internal hash is not tied to the databa
+se anymore
print("\$temp\n", Dumper($temp));    # Dumper shows no tied or blessed
+ hash; seems like it worked.

my @new_array = @{ $temp };    # Dereferencing the array reference to 
+reconstitute the array.
print("\@new_array\n", Dumper(\@new_array));    # The new array's hash
+ reference is normal.

@array = @{ $temp };    # Assigning the array reference to the origina
+l array variable.. should work fine.
print("\@array\n", Dumper(\@array));    # This prints a hash reference
+ that is still tied to the database.  WTF?

my @array = @{ $temp };    # Assigning the array reference to the orig
+inal array variable but redeclaring it using my.
print("\@array\n", Dumper(\@array));    # This works...  Why is redecl
+aring the variable important?  Why doesn't the reassignment work?

[download]
My questions, as shown in the comments, are:
1) Why does the hash reference, which prints clearly on its own, show a connection to the database when dereferenced and stored in the original array?
2) Why does using a new array, or redeclaring the array using 'my' fix this? I assume the answer is the same for both new and 'my' but do not understand either way.

Note: Running this on my Linux machine instead of my Windows machine does not yield a fix using 'my' again, but instead gives a warning of '"my" variable @array masks earlier declaration in same scope at test_dbm.pl line 30'. Of course, my Linux machine has DBM::Deep 1.0007 installed.

Any enlightenment you can provide would be most appreciated.

In reply to Is this DBM::Deep behavior, or something with tie/bless? by romandas

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