$ perl -E 'use constant AREF => [1..4]; say "@{+AREF}";' 1 2 3 4 $ perl -E 'use constant AREF => [1..4]; say "@{+AREF}"; AREF = []' Can't modify constant item in scalar assignment at -e line 1, at EOF Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors. $ perl -E 'use constant AREF => [1..4]; say "@{+AREF}"; AREF->[2] = 99; say "@{+AREF}"' 1 2 3 4 1 2 99 4