I'd probably write that as: my @c= split //, q'#%(/367@BCGQR^st~'; but you could also use: my @c= ( '#', qw' % ( / 3 6 7 @ B C G Q R ^ s t ~ ' );

Note that perlop.pod documents this right there under qw:

A common mistake is to try to separate the words with comma or to put comments into a multi-line C<qw>-string. For this reason, the use warnings pragma and the -w switch (that is, the $^W variable) produces warnings if the STRING contains the "," or the "#" character.

so "don't do that". /:

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")