c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -le "use warnings; use strict; ;; my $var = 10; my $hard_ref = \$var; sub func { return $var; } sub func_ref { return \ $var; } ;; print qq{arbitrary whitespace within the curlies: ${ var }apples \n}, qq{dereference of hard reference: ${ $hard_ref }apples \n}, qq{deref of ref to function return value: ${ \ func() }apples \n}, qq{deref of function returning ref: ${ func_ref() }apples \n}, qq{deref of ref to expression result: ${ \(11 + func()) }apples \n}, ; ;; no strict 'refs'; ;; our $name = 'road'; my $soft_ref = 'name'; ;; print qq{dereference of symbolic reference: ${ $soft_ref }apples \n}, qq{quoted literal symbolic identifier: ${ 'name' }apples \n}, ; " arbitrary whitespace within the curlies: 10apples dereference of hard reference: 10apples deref of ref to function return value: 10apples deref of function returning ref: 10apples deref of ref to expression result: 21apples dereference of symbolic reference: roadapples quoted literal symbolic identifier: roadapples