$ perl -MO=Deparse -e'print join( "|", %{{ }} = (1)x100 );' print join('|', %{{};} = (1) x 100); -e syntax OK $ perl -e'print join( "|", %{{};} = (1)x100 );' syntax error at -e line 1, near "%{{};" Unmatched right curly bracket at -e line 1, at end of line Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors. $ #### $ perl -we'print join( "|", %{{ }} = 1..100 );' 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|26|27|28|29|30|31|32|33|34|35|36|37|38|39|40|41|42|43|44|45|46|47|48|49|50|51|52|53|54|55|56|57|58|59|60|61|62|63|64|65|66|67|68|69|70|71|72|73|74|75|76|77|78|79|80|81|82|83|84|85|86|87|88|89|90|91|92|93|94|95|96|97|98|99|100$ $ perl -we'print join( "|", %{{ }} = (1,1,2,1,3,1,4,1,5,1) );' 1|1|2|1|3|1|4|1|5|1$