If you want the last element of a list, you can use a list slice.

my $last = ( LIST )[-1];
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The parens are required.

For example,

my $last = ( 'a', 'b', 'c'       )[-1];
my $last = ( 'a' .. 'c'          )[-1];
my $last = ( split(/,/, "a,b,c") )[-1];
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Note there's no such thing as a scalar slice. You can't slice a scalar into its components.