Have a look at the last code in the OP (I updated it 10 minutes after posting)

given(@array) and given(\@array) both produce the same ref in $_, but the smartmatch doesn't work as documented.

While I can understand why to limit given to simple scalars I think the docs should either be updated to reflect this behaviour or it's a bug.

UPDATE: you should add continues to se which clauses are true

my @a=('abc',1);
given (@a) {
    when (/abc/  ) { print "abc\n" ;continue}
    when (1      ) { print "#\n"   ;continue}
    when (['abc',1]) { print "copy\n" ;continue}
    when (\@a    ) { print "self\n" }
}

[download]

OUTPUT 

Argument "abc" isn't numeric in smart match at /home/lanx/tmp/ike_give
+n.pl line 9.
#
copy
self

[download]

Cheers Rolf

In reply to Re^2: Smart enough for Smart Match??? (was "Understanding ...Given/When" ) by LanX
in thread Understanding the benefit of Given/When ... by LanX

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