my @list = @{listRefReturningFunction()};
#also consider:
my $r = {"a" => [1,2,3,4],
         "b" => [5,6,7,8],
        };
print @{$r->{"a"}}; #prints 1234
                    #here print @$r->{"a"} won't work
                    #because this is a subscripted expression
# now with list...
my @x =(1,2,3,4);
my $xref=\@x;
print @$xref;       #prints 1234 also
                    #this works because there is no subscript