use strict; require 'gen_subs.pl'; my $foo = { 'abc', 123, 'def', 456 }; gs::do_dumper( 'foo423:', $foo ) # 423 a silly, easy-to-find label if 0; #### package gs; use strict; use Data::Dumper; sub do_dumper { my ( $label, $variable ) = @_; my $msg = Dumper( $variable ); warn "$label:\n$msg\n"; }