$ perl -le ' my $think_this_is_an_arrayref = \(qw{one two three}); print qq{Probably not dereference like this: $$think_this_is_an_arrayref}; print qq{Probably would dereference like this: @$think_this_is_an_arrayref}; ' Probably not dereference like this: three Not an ARRAY reference at -e line 4.