use strict;
use warnings;

my @arr = ('one', 'apple', 'two', 'apple', 'three');


my $var;
my $matches = 0;
foreach my $el (@arr) {
	(defined($var) ? $var .= 'y' : $var .= 'n') if $el eq 'apple';
	$matches++ if $el eq 'apple';
}
print "$var\n";
print "$matches\n";

$var = 'x';
$matches = 0;
foreach my $el (@arr) {
	(defined($var) ? $var .= 'y' : $var .= 'n') if $el eq 'apple';
	$matches++ if $el eq 'apple';
}
print "$var\n";
print "$matches\n";

##</code><code>##

nyn
2
xynyn
2