Separate the declaration from your usage: 
my $braces;
$braces = ... ;

[download]

This is a well known pitfall in various situations, for example: 

my $x = foo or $x = bar;

[download]
This uses two different $x variables.

In reply to Re: (??{...}) in regexps and lexicals by bart
in thread (??{...}) in regexps and lexicals by Jenda

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