my $foo = 'bar';
my $aaa = 3;      # to avoid sort's special vars, $a & $b
my $bbb = 2;
my $result = $foo * ($aaa *$bbb);
say "\$result is: $result";

=head

Argument "bar" isn't numeric in multiplication (*) at D:\_wo\1042598.pl line 11.
$result is: 0

=cut