I have a simple config file that I read in with Config::Simple. Now my config file wants to become less simple. Here is an example

# in my.conf file
FOO   'this'

# in my script
use strict;
use Config::Simple;
use vars qw($FOO);
Config::Simple->import_from("my.conf");
# the following works fine
print "$FOO\n";
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Now I want to add multiple values to FOO, so

# in my.conf file
FOO   'this', 'that'

# in my script
use strict;
use Config::Simple;
use vars qw(@FOO);
Config::Simple->import_from("my.conf");
# the following prints nothing at all
for (@FOO) {
  print "$_\n";
}

# however
use vars qw($FOO);
Config::Simple->import_from("my.conf");
# the following works fine
for (@$FOO) {
  print "$_\n";
}

# however, if I provide only one value for FOO in my.conf
# in my.conf file
FOO   'this'

# the following croaks
for (@$FOO) {
  print "$_\n";
}

Can't use string ("this") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" 
in use at ./test.pl line 41, <FH> line 1.
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Well, I don't want it to croak just in case the user provided only a single value for FOO, however, I have no way of knowing before-hand if one or multiple values for FOO will be provided.

Now, more complications -- FOO is the generic container to hold values with which I have to do something. Except, FOO should be able to hold different kinds of values. For example, FOO holds values that should be inserted in a db. Except, some values in FOO should be inserted in col A while others should be inserted in col B. Yes, instead of FOO, I could have TO_INSERT_IN_A and TO_INSERT_IN_B, however, that wouldn't be extensible to arbitrary columns.I really want to be able to specify perhaps an AoA or HoA in my config file. How?