What are common pitfalls or gotchas with return values (wantarray)?

In Perl, handling return values and understanding the context of return values can lead to some common pitfalls, especially with the wantarray function. This function allows subroutines to behave differently based on the context in which they're called (list, scalar, or void context). Below are some common gotchas related to wantarray in Perl:

• Confusing Contexts: If you're not careful, you can end up returning results in an unexpected context.
• List vs. Scalar Return: A subroutine that returns an array in list context and a single value in scalar context might lead to confusion.
• Use in Conditional Statements: Using a subroutine that employs wantarray within a control structure can result in unexpected behavior.

Here’s an example demonstrating the use of wantarray:

sub get_values {
        if (wantarray) {
            return (1, 2, 3);
        } else {
            return 1;
        }
    }

    my @array = get_values();  # Returns (1, 2, 3)
    my $scalar = get_values();  # Returns 1