Note that functions such as keys() and values() may return huge array values when used on large objects, like DBM files. You may prefer to use the each() function to iterate over such. Example:

    # print out history file offsets
    use NDBM_File;
    tie(%HIST, 'NDBM_File', '/usr/lib/news/history', 1, 0);
    while (($key,$val) = each %HIST) {
        print $key, ' = ', unpack('L',$val), "\n";
    }
    untie(%HIST);

A class implementing a hash should have the following methods:

    TIEHASH classname, LIST
    DESTROY this
    FETCH this, key
    STORE this, key, value
    DELETE this, key
    EXISTS this, key
    FIRSTKEY this
    NEXTKEY this, lastkey

A class implementing an ordinary array should have the following methods:

    TIEARRAY classname, LIST
    DESTROY this
    FETCH this, key
    STORE this, key, value
    [others TBD]

A class implementing a scalar should have the following methods:

    TIESCALAR classname, LIST
    DESTROY this
    FETCH this,
    STORE this, value

Unlike dbmopen(), the tie() function will not use or require a module for you--you need to do that explicitly yourself. See DB_File or the Config module for interesting tie() implementations.