Entire arrays (and slices of arrays and hashes) are denoted by '@', which works much like the word "these" or "those" does in English, in that it indicates multiple values are expected. @days # ($days[0], $days[1],... $days[n]) @days[3,4,5] # same as ($days[3],$days[4],$days[5]) @days{'a','c'} # same as ($days{'a'},$days{'c'}) Entire hashes are denoted by '%': %days # (key1, val1, key2, val2 ...)