You can avoid using temporary variables with the @{[...]} and ${\...} idioms: my $x = 1; say "$x + 1 = @{[ $x + 1 ]}"; sub plus1 { $_[0] + 1 } say

You can avoid using temporary variables with the @{[...]} and ${\...} idioms: my $x = 1; say "$x + 1 = @{[ $x + 1 ]}"; sub plus1 { $_[0] + 1 } say "$x + 1 = ${\plus1($x)}";