perldoc -f grep 
...
returns the list value consisting of those elements for 
which the expression evaluated to true.  In scalar context, 
returns the number of times the expression was true.

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In the first instance it sets scalar to the the number of matches.
In the second instance it actually only sets the value of $scalar to the first returned value as surrounding a scalar value in () puts the scalar into a list context.

print "Good ",qw(night morning afternoon evening)[(localtime)[2]/6]," fellow monks."

In reply to Re: Scalar assignment question by Utilitarian
in thread Scalar assignment question by sanmonkey

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