Let's have a look at the '\', '[]' and '()' constructs:

• [$a, $b, $c] is a reference to an array with three scalar elements.
• \[$a, $b, $c] is a reference to a scalar, which againg is a reference to an array with three scalar elements.
• [\$a, \$b, \$c] is a reference to an array with three scalars. Each of theese three scalars is a reference to the real scalar.

So using the special braces '[' and ']' creates a reference to an array. If you use the normal braces '(' and ')' you group things into lists, so:

• ($a, $b, $c) is a list of three scalar elements. It is not an array, but a list.
• \($a, $b, $c) is a list of three scalar elemnts. Each of theese three elements is a reference to the real scalar (that is your value "foo", "bar" and "baz")
• (\$a, \$b, \$c) is excatly the same as \($a, $b, $c). The '\' operator will distribute over the list.

So if we use the [$a, $b, $c] construct our list @list will contain one element, namely a reference to an array. If we on the other hand use the ($a, $b, $c) construct, the list will contain 3 elements.

So then, an easier way to write [\$a, \$b, \$c] would be [ \($a, $b, $c) ]. But still, this will not fix your example - I hope you can see the error in the example, but let's fix it:

$a = "foo";
$b = "bar";
$c = "baz";
@list = \($a, $b, $c);
foreach(@list) { print $$_ . "\n"; }
[download]

Autark.