>perl -le"print join ',', 5,6,7"
5,6,7

>perl -le"print join ',', scalar(5,6,7)"
7                                              <--- Not 3

>perl -le"print join ',', localtime"
13,2,13,11,10,109,3,314,0

>perl -le"print join ',', scalar(localtime)"
Wed Nov 11 13:02:26 2009                       <--- Not 9