Perl: Length of an anonymous list - arrays

Question

How to get the length of an anonymous list?
perl -E 'say scalar ("a", "b");' # => b
I expected scalar to return the list in a scalar context - its length.
Why it returns the second (last) element?
It works for an array:
perl -E 'my #lst = ("a", "b"); say scalar #lst;' # => 2

Answer 1

You can use
my $n = () = f();
As applied to your case, it's
say scalar( () = ("a", "b") );
or
say 0+( () = ("a", "b") );
First, let's clear up a misconception.
You appear to believe that some operators evaluate to some kind of data structure called a list regardless of context, and that this list returns its length when coerced into scalar context.
All of that is incorrect.
An operator must evaluate to exactly one scalar in scalar context, and a sub must return exactly one scalar in scalar context. In list context, operators can evaluate to any number of scalars, and subs can return any number of scalars. So when we say an operator evaluates to a list, and when we say a sub returns a list, we aren't referring to some data structure; we are simply using "list" as a shorthand for "zero or more scalars".
Since there's no such thing as a list data structure, it can't be coerced into a scalar. Context isn't a coercion; context is something operators check to determine to what they evaluate in the first place. They literally let context determine their behaviour and what they return. It's up to each operator to decide what they return in scalar and list context, and there's a lot of variance.
As you've noted,
The #a operator in scalar context evaluates to a single scalar: the length of the array.
The comma operator in scalar context evaluates to a single scalar: the same value as its last operand.
The qw operator in scalar context evaluates to a single scalar: the last value it would normally return.
On to your question.
To determine to how many scalars an operator would evaluate when evaluated in list context, we need to evaluate the operator in list context. An operator always evaluates to a single scalar in scalar context, so your attempts to impose a scalar context are ill-founded (unless the operator happens to evaluate to the length of what it would have returned in list context, as is the case for #a, but not for many other operators).
The solution is to use
my $n = () = f();
The explanation is complicated.

Answer 2

One way
perl -wE'$len = () = qw(a b c); say $len' #--> 3
The = () = "operator" is a play on context. It forces list context on its right side and assigns the length of the list. See this post about list vs scalar assignments and this page for some thoughts on all this.
If this need be used in a list context then the LHS context can also be forced by scalar, like
say scalar( () = qw(a b c) );
Or by yet other ways (0+...), but scalar is in this case actually suitable, and clearest.
In your honest attempt scalar imposes the scalar context on its operand -- or here an expression, which is thus evaluated by the comma operator, whereby one after another term is discarded, until the last one which is returned.
You'd get to know about that with warnings on, as it would emit
Useless use of a constant ("a") in void context at -e line 1
Warnings can always be enabled in one-liners as well, with -w flag. I recommend that.
I'd like to also comment on the notion of a "list" in Perl, often misunderstood.
In programming text a "list" is merely a syntax device, that code can use; a number of scalars, perhaps submitted to a function, or assigned to an array variable, or so. It is often identified by parenthesis but those really only decide precedence and don't "make" anything nor give a "list" any sort of individuality, like a variable has; a list is just a grouping of scalars.
Internally that's how data is moved around; a "list" is a fleeting bunch of scalars on a stack, returned somewhere and gone.
A list is not -- not -- any kind of a data structure or a data type; that would be an array. See for instance a perlfaq4 item and this related page.

Answer 3

Perl references are hard. I'm not sending you to read prelref since it's not something that anyone can just read and start using.
Long story short, use this pattern to get an anonymous array size: 0+#{[ <...your array expression...> ]}
Example:
print 0+#{[ ("a", "b") ]};