perl -wle "use strict; for my $x(@ARGV){ print qq(I was: $x); print qq(adding 1 I'm: ),$x + 1; print $x > 0 ? qq(I'm more than zero! ) : qq(I'm less than or zero! ); print $\ }" 0z 42A I was: 0z Argument "0z" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. adding 1 I'm: 1 I'm less than zero! I was: 42A Argument "42A" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. adding 1 I'm: 43 I'm more than zero!