c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dumper -le "my $x = '1.23' + qq{0.34 \t\n\r} + '5.6e3' + '100'; print Dumper $x; ;; $x = $x + 98.6; print Dumper $x; ;; my $y = 0 + $x; print Dumper $y; " $VAR1 = '5701.57'; $VAR1 = '5800.17'; $VAR1 = '5800.17';