Just to have it mentioned: another way to do it is given in perldoc -f scalar: 
#!perl -l

my $str = "here are some words";
my $count = @{[ $str =~ /\S+/g ]};
print $count;

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Personally, I think this makes the meaning clearer, but I'm sure others may disagree.

In reply to Re: Perl Idioms Explained - my $count = () = /.../g by truedfx
in thread Perl Idioms Explained - my $count = () = /.../g by japhy

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