returning reference of a variable defined inside a subroutine.

[aswingeo]

is the example below which I got from internet correct? My doubt is - when subroutine scope is lost,@array no more remains valid.Hence returning its reference does make any sense ? Please help .

sub return_array {
    my @array = (1, 2, 3);
    foreach my $element (@array) {
        calculate($element);
    }
    return \@array;
}