$ perl -MO=Terse -e '$v1.$v2.$v3' LISTOP (0x9dc5fe0) leave [1] OP (0x9dc6768) enter COP (0x9dd0650) nextstate BINOP (0x9dd06e0) concat [2] BINOP (0x9dd05b0) concat [1] UNOP (0x9dd0688) null [15] SVOP (0x9dd07e8) gvsv GV (0x9dcaa30) *v1 UNOP (0x9dd0578) null [15] SVOP (0x9dd0630) gvsv GV (0x9dcaa58) *v2 UNOP (0x9dd05d0) null [15] SVOP (0x9dcf9e0) gvsv GV (0x9dcaae4) *v3 -e syntax OK $ perl -MO=Terse -e '"$v1$v2$v3"' LISTOP (0x8b92778) leave [1] OP (0x8b88768) enter COP (0x8b92650) nextstate UNOP (0x8b926e0) null [67] OP (0x8b918d0) null [3] BINOP (0x8b925d0) concat [2] BINOP (0x8b925b0) concat [1] UNOP (0x8b92688) null [15] SVOP (0x8b927e8) gvsv GV (0x8b8ca44) *v1 UNOP (0x8b92578) null [15] SVOP (0x8b92630) gvsv GV (0x8b8cb34) *v2 UNOP (0x8b91920) null [15] SVOP (0x8b91a10) gvsv GV (0x8b8cae4) *v3 -e syntax OK