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  • I was really looking for 'quotemeta'. Yes, array elements should be specified as $foo[N] and not @foo[N], I could not really figure out the difference between the two.It will be helpful if you can point out the differences. Commented Oct 21, 2015 at 10:34
  • Thanks for including the actual quotemeta definition from the documentation. +1 for that. Commented Oct 21, 2015 at 10:36
  • 1
    @user3687023 $foo[n] is the nth element of array @foo, and @foo[n] is an array slice, it's a new array with one element. Try running perl -MO=Deparse,-q -le '@F=("foo"); print "@F[0]"'. You will see that @F[0] is actually join($", @F[0]). This sort of thing is why it's always a good idea to use warnings;. The code above produces this warning: Scalar value @F[0] better written as $F[0] at -e line 1.. Commented Oct 21, 2015 at 10:41
  • In perl the "sigil" ($, @, % etc.) denotes what data type you expect out of the thing. For a single scalar therefore, it's always $ - $value, $array[$index] or $hash{$key}. Perl knows what it is, because of the type of bracket you're using (if any), not by the sigil. It's perfectly valid to write @array[1..3] (because you're after multiple scalars). Or @hash{("key1", "key2", "key3")} to get a list of values matching the designated keys. Commented Oct 21, 2015 at 11:44