>perl -wMstrict -le "for my $string (qw(x 1x 12x 987x)) { print qq{string '$string' in numeric context is == }, 0+$string; } " Argument "x" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. string 'x' in numeric context is == 0 Argument "1x" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. string '1x' in numeric context is == 1 Argument "12x" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. string '12x' in numeric context is == 12 Argument "987x" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. string '987x' in numeric context is == 987