```{index} single: is_cow (B::COW) ``` ```{index} single: B::COW::is_cow ``` # is_cow Whether a string shares its buffer copy-on-write. ## Synopsis ```perl use B::COW qw(is_cow); my $copy = $string; print is_cow($copy) ? "shared\n" : "own buffer\n"; ``` ## What you get back True for a string value whose buffer is shared copy-on-write with other scalars or with a hash key, false otherwise - including for a value that is not a string.