use warnings;
use strict;

my $pattern = '1';
my @list = ( 1,2,'a','b',5,1,1,'t');

# In a scalar context grep will return the total times     # that the pattern was find in @list
# If you use @times = grep(/$pattern/,@list);
# @times will contain the pattern it founds in the array
# in this case @times will be ( 1 , 1 , 1 )

my $times = grep(/$pattern/,@list);
print "The pattern was found $times times";