given(@array) and given(\@array) both produce the same ref in $_, but the smartmatch doesn't work as documented.

While I can understand why to limit given to simple scalars I think the docs should either be updated to reflect this behaviour or it's a bug.

UPDATE: you should add continues to se which clauses are true

my @a=('abc',1);
given (@a) {
    when (/abc/  ) { print "abc\n" ;continue}
    when (1      ) { print "#\n"   ;continue}
    when (['abc',1]) { print "copy\n" ;continue}
    when (\@a    ) { print "self\n" }
}
[download]

OUTPUT

Argument "abc" isn't numeric in smart match at /home/lanx/tmp/ike_give
+n.pl line 9.
#
copy
self
[download]

given(@array) and given(\@array) both produce the same ref in $_

That's fine. ARRAY means array or array ref.

I didn't get a chance to read the thread JavaFan started, but I gotta go for a bit now.

extending your code shows that there is a bug when matching ARRAY ~~ REGEX, do you agree?

use 5.010;
use strict;
use warnings;
 
my @a=('abc',1);
given (@a) {
    when (/abc/  ) { print '/abc/'."\n" ;continue}
    when ("abc"  ) { print "abc\n" ;continue}
    #when (1      ) { print "#\n"   ;continue}
    when (['abc',1]) { print "copy\n" ;continue}
    when (\@a    ) { print "self\n" }
}
 
print "as it should be: ",@a~~/abc/;
[download]

OUTPUT

abc
copy
self
as it should be 1
[download]

Cheers Rolf

PS: I have to go, too ...