use strict; use warnings; { my @a = sub1(); print join(",", @a), "\n"; my $a = sub1(); print $a, "\n";; } { my @a = sub2(); print join(",", @a), "\n"; my $a = sub2(); print $a, "\n"; print join(",", @$a), "\n"; } sub sub1 { my @my_array = (1,11,111,1111); return wantarray ? @my_array : scalar @my_array; } sub sub2 { my @my_array = (2,22,222,2222); return wantarray ? @my_array : \@my_array; }