What is this line doing?

Help a newbie. Can someone tell me (in plain english) what the following line is doing:

$y = "{$z}<{$l}>{$y[0]}"

I understand assigning a value of one variable to another (ie;

 $y = $z

But what are the < and > for with the variables in between.

It's just constructing a string (as hinted at by the quotation marks), and it's a bit overwrought. The same thing could be done with:

$y = "$z<$l>$y[0]";

Of course, it's also overwriting "$y" in the process.

So if $z is 2 and $l is 5 and $y[0] is 1, it will construct the string "2<5>1". For whatever reason.

Perfect!

Thanks for the help!