---
name: "Test2::Util::Ref"
section: "3perl"
platform: "linux"
package: "perl"
version: "5.44.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Test2::Util::Ref/3perl"
---

# Test2::Util::Ref(3perl)

Tools for inspecting or manipulating references.

## NAME

Test2::Util::Ref - Tools for inspecting or manipulating references.

## DESCRIPTION

These are used by Test2::Tools to inspect, render, or manipulate references.

## EXPORTS

All exports are optional. You must specify subs to import.

- $type = rtype($ref)

  A normalization between `Scalar::Util::reftype()` and `ref()`.

  Always returns a string.

  Returns `'REGEXP'` for regex types

  Returns `''` for non-refs

  Otherwise returns what `Scalar::Util::reftype()` returns.

- $addr\_str = render\_ref($ref)

  Always returns a string. For unblessed references this returns something like `"SCALAR(0x...)"`. For blessed references it returns `"My::Thing=SCALAR(0x...)"`. The only difference between this and `$add_str =` `"$thing"` is that it ignores any overloading to ensure it is always the ref address.

## SOURCE

The source code repository for Test2-Suite can be found at *https://github.com/Test-More/test-more/*.

## MAINTAINERS

- Chad Granum \<exodist@cpan.org\>

  ## AUTHORS

- Chad Granum \<exodist@cpan.org\>

  - Kent Fredric \<kentnl@cpan.org\>

  ## COPYRIGHT

Copyright Chad Granum \<exodist@cpan.org\>.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See *http://dev.perl.org/licenses/*