use strict;

sub good { my @a = qw/zero one two/; @a }
sub bad  { qw/foo bar baz/ }

print scalar good(), "\t<== what I want";
print "\n";
print scalar bad(),  "\t<== not";
print "\n";
print scalar ( () = bad()),  "\t<== list context, then scalar()";
print "\n";
print "baz is ".bad();
print "\n";
print "1+2 = ".(  () = bad());
print "\n";
__END__

Output:
3	<== what I want
baz	<== not
3	<== list context, then scalar()
baz is baz
1+2 = 3