c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"my @special_characters = q{# $ % & ~ _ \\ { } ^};
 dd \@special_characters;
 print 'number of elements in array: ', scalar @special_characters;
"
["# \$ % & ~ _ \\ { } ^"]

number of elements in array: 1

##</code><code>##

c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le
"my @special_characters = q{# $ % & ~ _ \\ { } ^};
 ;;
 foreach my $i (@special_characters) {
   print qq{>>$special_characters[$i]<<};
   }
"
Argument "# $ % & ~ _ \\ { } ^" isn't numeric in array element at -e line 1.
>># $ % & ~ _ \ { } ^<<