D:\TEMP>perl -e"sub f{'fred'} goto ~~f" Can't find label fred at -e line 1. D:\TEMP>perl -e"sub f{'fred'} goto ''.f" Can't find label fred at -e line 1. D:\TEMP>perl -e"sub f{'fred'} goto scalar f" Can't find label fred at -e line 1. D:\TEMP>perl -e"sub f{'fred'} goto ${\f}" Can't find label fred at -e line 1.