BEGIN { my ($var1, $var2, $var3); my @array1; my %hash1; sub var1 { $var1 = $_[0] if @_; $var1 } sub var2 { $var2 = $_[0] if @_; $var2 } sub var3 { $var3 = $_[0] if @_; $var3 } # for arrays and hashes, call in scalar context and # dereference to manipulate contents sub array1 { wantarray ? @array1 : \@array1 } sub hash1 { wantarray ? %hash1 : \%hash1 } }