perl -le 'my $f = -1; ($f > 0 ? @a : @b ) = ("a", "b", "c"); print "a: @a\nb: @b"'
a: 
b: a b c
perl -le 'my $f = 1; ($f > 0 ? @a : @b ) = ("a", "b", "c"); print "a: @a\nb: @b"'
a: a b c
b: