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I was skeptical of Stéphane’s answer, however it is possible to abuse $#:

$ set `seq 101`

$ IFS=0

$ echo $#
1 1

or $?:

$ IFS=0

$ awk 'BEGIN {exit 101}'

$ echo $?
1 1

These are contrived examples, but the potential does exist.

I was skeptical of Stéphane’s answer, however it is possible to abuse $#:

$ set `seq 101`

$ IFS=0

$ printf '%s\n' $#
1 
1

$ printf '%s\n' "$#"
101

or $?:

$ IFS=0

$ awk 'BEGIN {exit 101}'

$ status=$?

$ printf '%s\n' $status
1
1

$ printf '%s\n' "$status"
101

These are contrived examples, but the potential does exist.

I was skeptical of Stéphane’s answer, however it is possible to abuse $#:

$ set `seq 101`

$ IFS=0

$ echo $#
1 1

or $?:

$ IFS=0

$ awk 'BEGIN {exit 101}'

$ echo $?
1 1

These are contrived examples, but the potential does exist.

I was skeptical of Stéphane’s answer, however it is possible to abuse $#:

$ set `seq 101`

$ IFS=0

$ echo $#
1 1

or $?:

$ IFS=0

$ awk 'BEGIN {exit 101}'

$ echo $?
1 1

These are contrived examples, but the potential does exist.

I was skeptical of Stéphane’s answer, however it is possible to abuse $#:

$ set `seq 101`

$ IFS=0

$ [ $# = 0 ]
bash: [: too many arguments

This is a contrived example, but the potential does exist.

I was skeptical of Stéphane’s answer, however it is possible to abuse $#:

$ set `seq 101`

$ IFS=0

$ echo $#
1 1

or $?:

$ IFS=0

$ awk 'BEGIN {exit 101}'

$ echo $?
1 1

These are contrived examples, but the potential does exist.