D:\>perl -MData::Dumper -e "@arr = qw (a b c); print Data::Dumper->new([\@arr])->Indent(0)->Dump" $VAR1 = ['a','b','c']; D:\>perl -MData::Dump::Streamer -e "@arr = qw (a b c); Dump(\@arr)->Indent(0)->Out()" $ARRAY1 = [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ]; D:\>perl -MData::Dump::Streamer -e "@arr = (qw (a b),(qw(c)) x 4); Dump(\@arr)->Names('*arr')->Indent(0)->Out()" @arr = ( 'a', 'b', ( 'c' ) x 4 );