Actually there is. As soon as you add that ampersand the constants cease to be constants. And instead of inlining the value during compile-time, Perl actually calls the functions each time. Therefore I'd rather add an empty pair of braces:

%hash = ( FOO() => 'FOO description, ...)
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perl -MO=Deparse -e "use constant FOO => 5; print FOO,qq{\n};"

perl -MO=Deparse -e "use constant FOO => 5; print &FOO,qq{\n};"

perl -MO=Deparse -e "use constant FOO => 5; print FOO(),qq{\n};"
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Jenda
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
   -- Rick Osborne

Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature

there is another option you left out, which makes use of the unary "+" operator.

perl -MO=Deparse -e "use constant FOO => 5; print +FOO,qq{\n};"
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which parses correctly. this syntax is idiomatic, and is the method i would prefer.

~Particle *accelerates*

Just one follow up question if I may; is there any downside in doing this?

A downside to using the ampersand notation? Not except for needing to keep track of where you need one and where you don't. (I actually think of that as a downside to using constant.)

Update: "Actually, there is." Jenda is right.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";