If you don't want to clobber the $testString contents

Both: 

    my $l_count = $testString =~ tr/(//;
    my $r_count = $testString =~ tr/)//;

[download]

and: 

    my $l_count = ($testString =~ tr/(/(/);
    my $r_count = ($testString =~ tr/)/)/);

[download]

do exactly the same thing.    Neither of which "clobbers" the string.

not sure if that is returning in a list context

The left-hand side of the assignment determines context, in this case scalar, so the parentheses are irrelevant.

In reply to Re^3: IT's not counting... by jwkrahn
in thread IT's not counting... by Dwood

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