The . operator is the string concatenation operator, so @array . "\n" stringifies @array and adds "\n" to the end, which returns scalar(@array) . "\n", i.e. the count of elements in @array and a "\n".

Not 100% correct ... :)

"scalar(@array)"? Yes!

"stringifies @array"? No!

It's more like stringifies scalar(@a) ...

  DB<26> @a=1..3
 
  DB<27> p scalar @a
3
  DB<28> p "@a"
1 2 3
  DB<29> p @a."\n"
3
 
  DB<30> p "@a"."\n" ; # $" is separator for stringification
1 2 3
 
  DB<31> print "@a\n"
1 2 3
 
  DB<32> p @a,"\n"   ; # $, is separator for print args
123
 
  DB<33> p "@a","\n" 
1 2 3

[download]

Cheers Rolf

UPDATE: From perlop#Operator Precedence and Associativity:

"With very few exceptions, these¹ all operate on scalar values only, not array values."

(1) = perl operators

In reply to Re^2: difference between @array."\n" and @array "\n" by LanX
in thread difference between @array."\n" and @array "\n" by NileshJ

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