5.6 Context Considerations

We have now discussed all the different ways you can use variables in list and scalar context. At this point, it might be helpful to review all the ways we have used variables in different contexts. The table that follows identifies many of the ways variables are used in Perl.

Expression	Context	Variable	Evaluates to
$scalar	scalar	$scalar, a scalar	the value held in $scalar
@array	list	@array, an array	the list of values (in order) held in @array
@array	scalar	@array, an array	the total number of elements in @array (same as $#array + 1)
$array[$x]	scalar	@array, an array	the ($x+1)th element of @array
$#array	scalar	@array, an array	the subscript of the last element in @array (same as @array -1)
@array[$x, $y]	list	@array, an array	a slice, listing two elements from @array (same as ($array[$x], $array[$y]))
"$scalar"	scalar (interpolated)	$scalar, a scalar	a string containing the contents of $scalar
"@array"	scalar (interpolated)	@array, an array	a string containing the elements of @array, separated by spaces
%hash	list	%hash, a hash	a list of alternating keys and values from %hash
$hash{$x}	scalar	%hash, a hash	the element from %hash with the key of $x
@hash{$x, $y}	list	%hash, a hash	a slice, listing two elements from %hash (same as ($hash{$x}, $hash{$y})