> it is throwing an error.

which error?

> $user = 'first.last@somewhere.com';

that's fine. You most likely did use double quotes instead

$user = "first.last@somewhere.com";

which will try to interpolate the array @somewhere.

But this is just a guess since you didn't give us details

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice

update

compare https://perlmaven.com/quoted-interpolated-and-escaped-strings-in-perl

In reply to Re: email address as username by LanX
in thread email address as username by nateh

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