$ perl -wE '$name = q(Fred); $debt = 50; say qq(You pay me ${debt}$ 00 cents, $name, or else!)' Use of uninitialized value $00 in concatenation (.) or string at -e line 1. You pay me 50 cents, Fred, or else! #### $ perl -E '$name = q(Fred); $debt = 50; say sprintf q(You pay me %s$ 00 cents, %s, or else!), $debt, $name' You pay me 50$ 00 cents, Fred, or else!