To implement it using your syntax you could do something like: 
sub operate (&@) {
  my $sub = shift;
  local $~;
  $~ = &$sub($_) for @_;
  return $~
}

[download]


So for your examples you would get: 
use strict;
sub operate (&@) {
  my $sub = shift;
  local $~;
  $~ = &$sub($_) for @_;
  return $~
}

my @list = (4, 6, 2, 67, 123, 645, 23, 54 );

my $max = operate { $~ > $_ ? $~ : $_ } @list;
print $max, "\n";

my $string = operate { $~.$_ } @list;
print $string, "\n";

open FILE, $0;
my $count = operate { $~ + /operate/ } <FILE>;
print "Count = $count\n";

[download]


And the results are 
max = 645
string = 462671236452354
count = 4

[download]

In reply to Re: List-to-Scalar Function? by perlmonkey
in thread List-to-Scalar Function? by Masem

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