PERL has four types of variables distinguished by their initial character
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Scalars with $ as initial character
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File Handles with Nothing special as their initial characters and conventionally represented by names which are all capitalized
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Simple arrays with @ as the initial character
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Associative arrays or dictionaries with % as initial character
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Arrays , represented by @fred are defined by comma-separated list of scalars
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@fred = (1, "second entry", $hw); # is an array with three entries
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Array entries can include scalar variables and more generally expressions which are evaluated when the array entry is USED not when it is DEFINED -- this is a difference from C but is for instance similar to functions in a spreadsheet
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@fred= (1, $hw . " more", $a+$b); # is an example of this
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