How to check if a scalar value is numeric or string?

bgupta has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks, I am trying to distinguish between numeric and string scalar values using regular expression as the below code.

my $var = {
            'key1' => '1',
            'key2' => 1
          };
print "Key1: It is a number\n" if ( $var->{'key1'} =~ /^-?\d/ ) ;
print "Key2: It is a number\n" if ( $var->{'key2'} =~ /^-?\d/ ) ;
[download]

But it is always getting interpreted as a number. Could somebody help me distinguish between the values '1' and 1 as in the above code

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