use utf8; sub ff { print utf8::is_utf8($_[0]) ? 1 : 0, "\n"; } ff("asd"); # 0 ff('asd'); # 0 ff(qw(asd)); # 0 ff(asd => 1); # 1 { no strict; ff(asd); } # 1 ff(-asd); # 1 ff(asd::); # 1