use strict; use warnings; use 5.012; sub do_stuff { get_glob(shift); } sub get_glob { glob shift; } for my $i (1..10) { print "$i: "; if (my $x = do_stuff('dir1/f*')) { print "\t$x"; } print "\n"; } --output:-- 1: dir1/f1 2: dir1/f2 3: 4: dir1/f1 5: dir1/f2 6: 7: dir1/f1 8: dir1/f2 9: 10: dir1/f1