use strict; use warnings; use feature 'say'; use Devel::Peek; my $p = 'abc'; my $q = 'abc'; Dump(( substr $p, 0, 1 ) = '123' ); Dump( time ); (( substr( $q, 0, 1 )) = '123' ) = 'x'; say $q; #substr(( time ), 0, 1 ) = 'x';