As an update, string concatenation can be used in other situations to force scalar context so it is valid to mention that possibility. In this particular case, 0+ is perfect. However if the goal is only to count ";", tr is even better.

> fair enough, both work.

Still different, your result is a string.

Perl works hard to treat all scalar sub-types equally by operators, but I seem to remember edge cases where the internal type mattered and resulted in errors.

No need to stringify a number.

And a reader - at least me - would be confused.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice}