use Data::Dumper; print Dumper($store);
When used on the example from Class::Struct, this prints:
$VAR1 = bless( {
'Shoppe::owner' => 'Abdul Alhazred',
'Shoppe::stock' => {
'charms' => 3,
'books' => 208,
'potions' => 'none'
},
'Shoppe::boss' => bless( {
'Manager::name' =>
'Prof L. P. Haitch',
'Manager::salary' =>
'madness',
'Manager::started' =>
'Sat Apr 1 16:18:13 2000'
}, 'Manager' ),
'Shoppe::addrs' => [
'Miskatonic University',
'Innsmouth, Mass.'
]
}, 'Shoppe' );
The Data::Dumper module's Dumper
function takes a list of scalars (including references, which can even
refer to objects) and returns a printable or
evalable string that accurately reproduces an
faithful copy of the original. You could use this to write out a
saved version of a data structure to a regular disk file or into a DBM
file, or to pass it to another process over a pipe or socket
connection. This module can be used with MLDBM
from CPAN and DB_File to implement a DBM file that
can transparently store complex data values, not just flat strings.
Other stringification (or serialization, or
marshalling) modules include
Storable and FreezeThaw, both
available from CPAN.