If this is a problem you can call all subroutines in array context

It's called list context. Arrays have nothing to do with it.

Messy but would take care of the problem.

Not necessarily. 

sub f { return   @_   }
sub g { return [ @_ ] }

my $d = [];
my @f = f($d);  printf("%d element(s), first=%s\n", 0+@f, $f[0]);
my @g = g($d);  printf("%d element(s), first=%s\n", 0+@g, $g[0]);

[download]
1 element(s), first=ARRAY(0x235f6c)
1 element(s), first=ARRAY(0x236020)

[download]

This is how I handle some XML data structures deparsed from API calls to certain applications that can return an array of hashrefs, an arrayref of hashrefs, a single hashref or undefined.

Let's hope not since your code can't differentiate between list of hashrefs and a single hashref. The latter is just a short list of hashrefs. (I presumed you meant "list of hashref" when you said "array of hashref" since it's impossible to return an array.)

In reply to Re^4: check for wantarray? by ikegami
in thread check for wantarray? by KurtZ

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.