Actually, CGI's import_names() method imports every parameter as a scalar and as an array. The scalar will hold the first value for the parameter; the array will hold all the values, of course.

The array be safely used in all cases, but the scalar is available for when you know that a parameter should only have a single value.

% perl -MCGI -de '$q = new CGI "single=1&multi=1&multi=2";' -e '1;'
 
Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.0402
Emacs support available.
 
Enter h or `h h' for help.
 
main::(-e:1):   $q = new CGI "single=1&multi=1&multi=2";
  DB<1> n
main::(-e:2):   1;
  DB<1> $q->import_names('Q')
 
  DB<2> V Q
$single = 1
@single = (
   0  1
)
$multi = 1
@multi = (
   0  1
   1  2
)
  DB<3>
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