Perl Variable Context

Perl treats the same variable differently based on Context, i.e., the situation where a variable is being used. Let's check the following example −

Example

 Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/perl
@names = ('John Paul', 'Lisa', 'Kumar');
@copy = @names;
$size = @names;

print "Given names are : @copy\n";
print "Number of names are : $size\n";

Output

This will produce the following result −

Given names are : John Paul Lisa Kumar
Number of names are : 3

Here @names is an array, which has been used in two different contexts. First, we copied it into another array, i.e., list, so it returned all the elements assuming that context is list context. Next we used the same array and tried to store this array in a scalar, so in this case, it returned just the number of elements in this array assuming that context is scalar context. Following table lists down the various contexts −