#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my @results;

# what I thought would work ok..
@results = blah('"or"')
  || blah('"or"')
  || blah('"or"');

# an attempt to fix..
@results = (blah('"(or)"'))
  || (blah('"(or)"'))
  || (blah('"(or)"'));

# an ugly solution that works..
if (@results = blah('"if"')){
} elsif (@results = blah('"if"')) {
} elsif (@results = blah('"if"')) {
}

# not as ugly, but still a hack
for (1){
  last if @results = blah('"for"');
  last if @results = blah('"for"');
  last if @results = blah('"for');
  last;
}


sub blah{
  my ($call) = @_;
  print "$call ";
  print wantarray ? "wants array" : "wants string";
  print "\n";
  return (1,2,3);
}

__END__

]$ perl wantarr.pl
"or" wants string
"(or)" wants string
"if" wants array
"for" wants array