Look at the OP's question. Seems clear he is confused about when to use {}, [], and () in the context of variable creation/assignment. So with that in mind, given "my %hash = ( x => 'a', y => 'b', z => 'c')" the parens are used to indicate where the list of key/value pairs begins and ends. Ergo, they indicate a list. Yes, the comma operator provides the list context, but it's not useful for distinguishing when to use {}, [], or (). I was thinking more in terms of a "list of key/value pairs".