use strict;
use warnings;

my @array = split "\n", argsub();

sub argsub {
    my $string = "This is\nthe string\nto split.\n";
    my @ary = ( "The\ncat",
                "The\ndog",
                "The\nmouse" );
    if ( wantarray ) { 
        print "List context.\n";
        return @ary;
    } else {
        print "Scalar context.\n";
        return $string;
    }
}