You misunderstood me. A list assignment in scalar context returns the number of elements. 
my $count = (LIST1) = (LIST2);
The chunk in bold is the list assignment. That is put in scalar context by the my $count = ... part.

Please see Re: Longest repeated string... for further clarification.

Jeff japhy Pinyan, P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.: Perl, regex, and perl hacker
How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart

In reply to Re^2: Perl Idioms Explained - my $count = () = /.../g by japhy
in thread Perl Idioms Explained - my $count = () = /.../g by japhy

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