"The main problem with Data::Dumper (one of my all-time favorite modules) is that you have to use eval() to deserialize the data you've dumped. This is great if you can trust the data you're evaling, but horrible if you can't. A good alternative is Storable.pm. It can safely thaw your frozen data. But if you want to read/edit the frozen data, your out of luck, because Storable uses a binary format. Even Data::Dumper's output can be a little cumbersome for larger data objects. ... Data::Denter is yet another Perl data serializer/deserializer. It formats nested data structures in an indented fashion. It is optimized for human readability/editability, safe deserialization, and (eventually) speed."