Because the first left parenthesis if taken bij print to form: print(...). As you have found out yourself, you need an extra pair of parenthesis or you need to put a + before your code, like this:
  print +(split "\t", $line)[0], "\n";

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See also print for more information

Paul

In reply to Re: Question about list context by rev_1318
in thread Question about list context by Tomtom

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