---
name: ref
status: documented
runtime: pp
source: src/runtime/pp/array_ops.rs
---
```{index} single: ref; Perl built-in (pp runtime)
```

# ref

## Synopsis

```perl
my $type = ref $ref;           # "HASH", "ARRAY", "SCALAR", "CODE", etc.
my $class = ref $object;       # "MyClass" for blessed references
if (ref $x) { ... }            # true if $x is a reference
```

## Description

Returns the reference type or blessed class name of a value.

Pops one value and pushes a string describing its reference type.
For blessed references, returns the class name (e.g. `"MyClass"`).
For unblessed references, returns the underlying type: `"SCALAR"`,
`"ARRAY"`, `"HASH"`, `"CODE"`, `"REF"`, `"GLOB"`, or `"Regexp"`.
For non-references, returns the empty string `""`.

Delegates to `Sv::ref_type()` for the actual type determination.

## See also

bless, Scalar::Util