my $one = 1; my $two = 2; my $three = 3; my @arr = ($one, $two, $three); $arr[0] += 10; print "\$one = $one\n"; # still 1 for my $x ($one, $two, $three) { $x += 0.5; } print "\$one = $one\n"; # changed to 1.5 for my $x (@arr) { $x += 0.1; } print "\$one = $one\n"; # still 1.5, no link between $arr[0] and $one #### my $one = 1; my $two = 2; my $three = 3; sub direct { $_[0] += 10; $_[1] += 9; } sub indirect { my ($a,$b,$c) = @_; $a += 99; $b += 99; } print "\$one = $one\n"; # 1 direct($one, $two, $three); print "\$one = $one\n"; # changed to 11. $_[0] was an alias to $one. indirect($one, $two, $three); print "\$one = $one\n"; # still 11. The $a was assigned a copy of the value. It's not an alias