The parentheses indicate list context. For example:
my @fred = qw(42 43 44 45);
my ($q, $x, $y, $z) = grep /\d+/, @fred;
print "$q $x $y $z\n";

[download]
I don't think you would be surprised at the result: 
42 43 44 45

[download]
So $q is 42. Now remove $z: 
($q, $x, $y) = grep /\d+/, @fred;
print "$q $x $y\n";

[download]
Now we get just 42 43 44That is $q has not changed. Now remove $y: 
($q, $x) = grep /\d+/, @fred;
print "$x\n";

[download]
and we get 
42 43

[download]
$q still is unchanged. Finally remove $x:
($q) = grep /\d+/, @fred;
print "$q\n";

[download]
and $q is still:
42

[download]

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

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.