http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1210768


in reply to [SOLVED] Get element count of CONSTANT list (aref))

constants are basically just sub FOO () { ... } (Constant Functions). So I first tried your @{ STEPPER_SEQUENCE }, but Perl reminded me: Ambiguous use of @{STEPPER_SEQUENCE} resolved to @STEPPER_SEQUENCE and Global symbol "@STEPPER_SEQUENCE" requires explicit package name. However, once you disambiguate:

use constant STEPPER_SEQUENCE => [ [qw(1 0 0 1)], [qw(1 0 0 0)], [qw(1 1 0 0)], [qw(0 1 0 0)], [qw(0 1 1 0)], [qw(0 0 1 0)], [qw(0 0 1 1)], [qw(0 0 0 1)], ]; print 0+@{STEPPER_SEQUENCE()}, "\n"; print 0+@{+STEPPER_SEQUENCE}, "\n"; print 0+@{&STEPPER_SEQUENCE}, "\n"; __END__ 8 8 8

Update: The thread constant vector might be relevant here too. Also added the third example, although note that calls to constant functions with & are not subject to inlining.