There is no one answer, as the output can be anything from scalar reference to a hash reference. But a good way to start the "detective work" is

use Data::Dumper;

my $return = $object->function_call();

print "$return\n";   # will tell you what the ref type is

print Dumper( [ \$return  ] ), "\n";
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Now there can be some glitches. If the function call returns an array, and you try to catch it in $return, you may only get the first array element. But that is what the perldocs are for. They tell you what the methods return.