The current value of the write()
accumulator for format()
lines. A format contains formline()
calls that put their result into $^A
. After calling its format, write()
prints out the contents of $^A
and empties. So you never really see the contents of $^A
unless you call formline()
yourself and then look at it. See perlform and "formline PICTURE,LIST" in perlfunc.