$ perl -wle' sub child::decode { print "decode(@_)" } my %foo = (0110 => "decode",a=>"Hallo ",b=>"Welt!!!"); my $inst = bless {}, "child"; my $bar = $inst->can("decode"); $inst->$bar(211,"hallo","xg",\%foo); ' decode(child=HASH(0x813c8a4) 211 hallo xg HASH(0x813c9a0))