Other Options

Use a BEGIN block in the super class -- have AUTOLOAD create the functions right after the class is compiled.

Use a closure to generate your subs. Something like:

sub gen_sub {
    my $self = shift;
    my $type = shift;
    
    my $sub_ref = sub {
        if (defined $self{$type}) {
            $value = $self{$type};
            return $value;
        } else {
            return undef;
        }
    }

    *{"get_$type"} = $sub_ref;
}
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Actually, looking at it now, that would be good for an AUTOLOAD. Do something like:

sub AUTOLOAD {
    no strict "refs";
    my ($self, $value) = @_;     # alias these to make it easier later
    
    if ($AUTOLOAD =~ /::get_(\w+)/) {
        *{$AUTOLOAD} = sub { return $_[0]->{$1} };
        return $self->{$1};
    } elsif ($AUTOLOAD =~ /::set_(\w+)/){
        *{$AUTOLOAD} = sub { $_[0]->{$1} = $_[1] };
        $self->[$1] = $value;
        return;
    }
    # handle other methods here or throw a warning
}
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Tell people not to override AUTOLOAD without a good reason. If they have a good reason, figure out how to call your AUTOLOAD themselves. :)
Some other method... use $self->can($functionname) to see if an object has some method.

Object Oriented Perl

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