package SomeClass; use overload '""'=>"name"; sub new { return bless {}, shift; } sub name { my $self = shift; $self->{NAME} = shift if @_; return $self->{NAME}; } 1; #### use lib '.'; use SomeClass; my $thing = SomeClass->new; $thing->name('TestObj'); print "Explicit: my name is ", $thing->name, "\n"; print "Implicit: my name is $thing\n"; exit; #### sub stringify { my $self = shift; return $self->{NAME}; }