use Devel::Peek; my @arr = ("foo", 3); Dump($arr[-1]); my @bogus = map {length} @arr; Dump($arr[-1]); __END__ SV = IV(0x8192bcc) at 0x8184234 REFCNT = 1 FLAGS = (IOK,pIOK) IV = 3 SV = PVIV(0x8184888) at 0x8184234 REFCNT = 1 FLAGS = (IOK,POK,pIOK,pPOK) IV = 3 PV = 0x8189cf8 "3"\0 CUR = 1 LEN = 2