Note that, because $_ is a reference into the list value, it can be used to modify the elements of the array. While this is useful and supported, it can cause bizarre results if the LIST is not a named array. Similarly, grep returns aliases into the original list, much as a for loop's index variable aliases the list elements. That is, modifying an element of a list returned by grep (for example, in a foreach, map() or another grep()) actually modifies the element in the original list. This is usually something to be avoided when writing clear code.