I'm really struggling to articulate my question. The real question is: If there's only one value in the return list, how can I return that value in scalar context, not the count of 1?.

sub lowercase {
    my @out = map { lc } @_ ;

    return @out == 1 && ! wantarray ? $out[0]: @out ;
    }

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This code is optimized based on all the answers so far, and doesn't use first either. In fact, I've probably used this construction thousands of times.

My question is based on 3 assumptions:

  1. As mentioned, I prefer to avoid using placeholder variables.
  2. I find it awkward to refer to 3 forms of a variable in a single statement.
  3. If I've used this construction thousands of times, and so have others, why hasn't someone developed a single operator?

I assumed that List::Util would include this functionality. That is, if first or some variant could determine and respond to the wantarray context.

UPDATE (no update)

In reply to Re^2: wantarray alternative by tqisjim
in thread wantarray alternative by tqisjim

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