return $this #### use strict ; use warnings ; sub test { return ('a','test') } my $test = test() ; my @test = test() ; print ">>> $test\n" ; print map "[$_]\n",@test ; print $test == scalar(@test)? "Yepa!\n" : "Nope!\n" ; #### $ perl test.pl >>> test [a] [test] Argument "test" isn't numeric in numeric eq (==) at test.pl line 11. Nope!