You can use a slice to get the elements you want, then you don't need a dummy variable.

my ($x, $z) = (split(",",'7,8,9'))[0,2];
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I sometimes do the following:

my ($day, $month, $year) = (localtime())[3,4,5];
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Alternatives seem too distracting:

($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime();
(undef,undef,undef,$mday,$mon,$year) = localtime();
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