shift(@_) # get an element from the parameter list qw/ -foo -bar / # creates a list of two strings: "-foo" and "-bar" @{ shift(@_) }{ qw/ -foo -bar / } # dereference the anonymous hash reference as a hash slice # returns a list containing the values of the given keys # in the anonymous hash, in the form of: # # @values = @hash{@keys} my ($foo, $bar) = @{ shift(@_) }{ qw/ -foo -bar / }; # assign the two element list retrieved into $foo and $bar