Because the returned expression is evaluated in the boolean (scalar) context.

The way context is propagated into the sub is one of the peculiarities if Perl5.

Could you show us the code of the return line?

edit

E.g. return $x,$y will be true if $y is true.

But return @x will only be false if @x is empty.

See also Context propagation into subs and evals

perldata:

A scalar value is interpreted as FALSE in the Boolean sense if it is undefined, the null string or the number 0 (or its string equivalent, "0"), and TRUE if it is anything else. The Boolean context is just a special kind of scalar context where no conversion to a string or a number is ever performed.

perlsyn:

The number 0, the strings '0' and "" , the empty list (), and undef are all false in a boolean context. All other values are true. Negation of a true value by ! or not returns a special false value. When evaluated as a string it is treated as "" , but as a number, it is treated as 0. Most Perl operators that return true or false behave this way.

LanX already said that return just propagates the context of the sub call. Lists evaluated in scalar context return their last value, which is different from arrays, which return their size. Compare:

$ perl -wMstrict -le 'my $x = ("a","b","c"); print $x;'
Useless use of a constant ("a") in void context at -e line 1.
Useless use of a constant ("b") in void context at -e line 1.
c
$ perl -wMstrict -le 'my @y = ("a","b","c"); my $x = @y; print $x;'
3
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One way to do what you want might be via the wantarray function:

return wantarray ? ($return,$values,$here) : $found_item_count;
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wantarray can be your friend, too.

sub searchsub
{
   my ($wanted)=@_;
   
   $wanted=extract_value($wanted);
   for(@$table)
   {
      return($_->{VALUE}, $_->{NAME}, $_->{ADDRESS}) if $_->{VALUE} eq
+ $wanted
   }
   
   ()
}
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if ($_->{VALUE} eq $wanted) {
   return wantarray ? ( $_->{VALUE}, $_->{NAME}, $_->{ADDRESS} ) : 1;
}
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or

if ($_->{VALUE} eq $wanted) {
   return wantarray ? @$_{qw( VALUE NAME ADDRESS )} : 1;
}
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> So the problem is that it's evaluating ADDRESS instead of the list itself?

Yes that's the effect if the scalar comma operator.

Just copy the list to a temporary @array to be returned.

Or return a literal construct like @{[L,I,S,T]}

update

Or best use a hash slice

 return @$_{VALUE,NAME,ADDRESS} if ...

Cheers Rolf

_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)}

In fact, return @$_{'VALUE','ADDRESS'} has the same problem as my original code. But return @{[@$_{'VALUE','ADDRESS'}]} works great, if it is a little confusing to a beginner like me.