Your code will not work if $_ is lexical.
You can't make $_ a lexical: 

$ perl -lwe "my $_='abc'; chop; print"
Can't use global $_ in "my" at -e line 1, near "my $_"
Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.

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-- 
Ronald Fischer <ynnor@mm.st>

In reply to Re^2: How can I avoid code repetition here by rovf
in thread How can I avoid code repetition here by rovf

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