my $self = shift;

##</code><code>##

   $self{theValue}

##</code><code>##

   $self -> {theValue}

##</code><code>##

package Test;

sub new {
        my $class = shift;
        my $self = {};
        bless $self, $class;
        return $self;
}

sub getValue {
        my $self = shift;
        $self -> {theValue}; # note '->'
}

sub setValue {
        my $self = shift;
        my $value = shift;
        $self -> {theValue} = $value; # note '->'
}