my $ar1 = [qw(this is another element)];
my $ar2 = [ 'this','is','another','element'];
my @a1 = ('this','is','another','element');
my @a2 = (qw(this is another element));

printf "
\$ar1 has %s elements
\$ar2 has %s elements
\@a1 has %s elements
\@a2 has %s elements
",
scalar @$ar1,
scalar @{$ar2},
scalar @a1,
scalar @a2;