$ perl -MDevel::Peek -e'@a=qw( a b c ); sub { Dump($_[0]) }->( $#a );' SV = PVMG(0x1d36630) at 0x1cfcfd0 REFCNT = 1 FLAGS = (GMG,SMG) IV = 0 NV = 0 PV = 0 MAGIC = 0x1cf6ab0 MG_VIRTUAL = &PL_vtbl_arylen MG_TYPE = PERL_MAGIC_arylen(#) MG_OBJ = 0x1d07d10 #### use strict; use warnings; use List::Util qw( max ); use Variable::Magic qw( cast wizard ); # Make $x a magical variable that always returns 5. cast(my($x), wizard( get => sub { ${ $_[0] } = 5 }, ) ); $x = 3; if ($ARGV[0]) { no warnings 'void'; 0+$x } print('max($x, 4)=', max($x, 4), "\n"); print('$x=', $x, "\n"); #### $ perl a.pl 0 max($x, 4)=4 $x=5 $ perl a.pl 1 max($x, 4)=5 $x=5