my $eNswm = evalNswmPrefs(\@nswm); print "$eNswm\n"; *snip* sub evalNswmPrefs { my $nswm = shift; my $size = scalar @$nswm; print "$size\n"; print "returning 2?\n"; return 2 if $size le 0; print "returning 1?\n"; return 1 if $size lt 4; print "returning 0?\n"; return 0; } while running: 11 returning 2? returning 1? 1