use strict; use warnings; 
use Data::Dumper; 

my @arr=({a=>1,b=>2},{a=>3,b=>4},{a=>5,b=>6}); 
print '$#arr       :'.$#arr."\n";
print 'scalar(@arr):'.scalar(@arr)."\n";
print Dumper \@arr; 


my @results = rvar('hash') . "\n";
print Dumper \@results; 
print "Number of array elements: <b>" . @results . "</b><br>\n";

my @results2 = rvar('arr') . "\n";
print Dumper \@results2; 
print "Number of array elements: <b>" . @results2 . "</b><br>\n";

sub rvar { 
my $mode=shift; 
my @arr=({a=>1,b=>2},{a=>3,b=>4},{a=>5,b=>6}); 
if ($#arr eq 2) {print "text eq works but weird\n"; } 
if ($mode eq 'hash') {  
  my $hashRef = $arr[0];
  return $hashRef; 
  } 
elsif ($mode eq 'arr') {  
  my $arrayRef = \@arr;
  return $arrayRef;
  } 
return 0; 
}
[download]

result

$#arr       :2
scalar(@arr):3
$VAR1 = [
          {
            'b' => 2,
            'a' => 1
          },
          {
            'b' => 4,
            'a' => 3
          },
          {
            'a' => 5,
            'b' => 6
          }
        ];
text eq works but weird
$VAR1 = [
          'HASH(0x3f7f2c)
'
        ];
Number of array elements: <b>1</b><br>
text eq works but weird
$VAR1 = [
          'ARRAY(0xb321bc)
'
        ];
Number of array elements: <b>1</b><br>
[download]

First, $#arr returns the index of the last element, not the count.
Second all you ever return from sql_execute is a scalar, it may be a hashref, or a arrayref, or a number but it is always a scalar.
Third, in my @results = search_item($dbh, \@users, $st, $sv) . "\n"; you force scalar mode with the . for concatenation, and the "\n" gets placed into the @results array appended to scalar result as its only item.
Fourth, you never showed us search_item so i am just sortof guessing but if search_item actualy did return an array the size of the array would be concatenated with the "\n" since scalar context was forced

Edit: added "index of the" to "returns the index of the last element"