our @foo = ( 0 ); my @bar = ( 'a' ); { local @foo = ( 1 ); my @bar = ( 'b' ); baz(); print "$foo[ 0 ] $bar[ 0 ]\n"; # may not print "1 b" } sub baz { $foo[ 0 ] = 3; $bar[ 0 ] = 'x'; } __END__ 3 b