---
name: "Dumpvalue"
section: "3p"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Dumpvalue"
---

# Dumpvalue(3p)

provides screen dump of Perl data.

## NAME

Dumpvalue - provides screen dump of Perl data.

## SYNOPSIS

```
  use Dumpvalue;
  my $dumper = Dumpvalue->new;
  $dumper->set(globPrint => 1);
  $dumper->dumpValue(\*::);
  $dumper->dumpvars('main');
  my $dump = $dumper->stringify($some_value);
```

## DESCRIPTION

### Creation

A new dumper is created by a call

```
  $d = Dumpvalue->new(option1 => value1, option2 => value2)
```

Recognized options:

- "arrayDepth", "hashDepth"

  Print only first N elements of arrays and hashes.  If false, prints all the elements.

- "compactDump", "veryCompact"

  Change style of array and hash dump.  If true, short array may be printed on one line.

- "globPrint"

  Whether to print contents of globs.

- "dumpDBFiles"

  Dump arrays holding contents of debugged files.

- "dumpPackages"

  Dump symbol tables of packages.

- "dumpReused"

  Dump contents of "reused" addresses.

- "tick", "quoteHighBit", "printUndef"

  Change style of string dump.  Default value of `"tick"` is `"auto"`, one can enable either double-quotish dump, or single-quotish by setting it to `"""` or `"'"`.  By default, characters with high bit set are printed *as is*.  If `"quoteHighBit"` is set, they will be quoted.

- "usageOnly"

  rudimentary per-package memory usage dump.  If set, `"dumpvars"` calculates total size of strings in variables in the package.

- unctrl

  Changes the style of printout of strings.  Possible values are `"unctrl"` and `"quote"`.

- subdump

  Whether to try to find the subroutine name given the reference.

- bareStringify

  Whether to write the non-overloaded form of the stringify-overloaded objects.

- quoteHighBit

  Whether to print chars with high bit set in binary or "as is".

- stopDbSignal

  Whether to abort printing if debugger signal flag is raised.

Later in the life of the object the methods may be queries with **get()** method and **set()** method (which accept multiple arguments).

### Methods

- dumpValue

  ```
    $dumper->dumpValue($value);
    $dumper->dumpValue([$value1, $value2]);
  ```

  Prints a dump to the currently selected filehandle.

- dumpValues

  ```
    $dumper->dumpValues($value1, $value2);
  ```

  Same as `"$dumper->dumpValue([$value1, $value2]);"`.

- stringify

  ```
    my $dump = $dumper->stringify($value [,$noticks] );
  ```

  Returns the dump of a single scalar without printing. If the second argument is true, the return value does not contain enclosing ticks. Does not handle data structures.

- dumpvars

  ```
    $dumper->dumpvars('my_package');
    $dumper->dumpvars('my_package', 'foo', '~bar$', '!......');
  ```

  The optional arguments are considered as literal strings unless they start with `"~"` or `"!"`, in which case they are interpreted as regular expressions (possibly negated).

  The second example prints entries with names `"foo"`, and also entries with names which ends on `"bar"`, or are shorter than 5 chars.

- set\_quote

  ```
    $d->set_quote('"');
  ```

  Sets `"tick"` and `"unctrl"` options to suitable values for printout with the given quote char.  Possible values are `"auto"`, `"'"` and `"""`.

- set\_unctrl

  ```
    $d->set_unctrl('unctrl');
  ```

  Sets `"unctrl"` option with checking for an invalid argument. Possible values are `"unctrl"` and `"quote"`.

- compactDump

  ```
    $d->compactDump(1);
  ```

  Sets `"compactDump"` option.  If the value is 1, sets to a reasonable big number.

- veryCompact

  ```
    $d->veryCompact(1);
  ```

  Sets `"compactDump"` and `"veryCompact"` options simultaneously.

- set

  ```
    $d->set(option1 => value1, option2 => value2);
  ```

- get

  ```
    @values = $d->get('option1', 'option2');
  ```