sub foobar {
  ...
  return wantarray ? @foobar : \@foobar;
}

##</code><code>##

      | foo       | bar      | foobar      | "best"
------+-----------+----------+-------------+-------------
List  | foo()     | @{bar()} | foobar()    | foo / foobar
Ref   | [ foo() ] | bar()    | foobar()    | bar / foobar
Count | foo()     | @{bar()} | @{foobar()} | foo

##</code><code>##

      | foo       | bar      | foobar
------+-----------+----------+--------
List  | copy      | copy     | copy
Ref   | copy      | no-copy  | no-copy
Count | no-copy   | no-copy  | no-copy