if (/^[\$]\w/) {
    print "\nThat is a scalar data type\n";
} elsif (m/^[\@]\w/) {
    print "\nThat is an array data type\n";
} else {
    print "\nData type not found\n";
}

##</code><code>##

print "Enter a string and I will determine the data type: ";
chomp(local $_ = <STDIN>);

my %sigil2type = ('$' => 'scalar',
                  '@' => 'array',
                  '%' => 'hash',
                  '*' => 'GLOB');

my $sigil = substr $_, 0, 1;
my $type = $sigil2type{$sigil} || 'unknown';
say "\nThat is a $type data type.";