[Techtalk] Perl Frustration

[Kai MacTane]

At 10/31/03 10:19 AM , Almut Behrens wrote:

>the feature you're using here to define new variables at runtime is
>named "symbolic references", and those in principle do not work with
>my-variables

I knew that, I just didn't know why, or what to use instead.

>(reason is, among others, that my-vars have no associated
>symbol table).

Ah, so that's why! Thank you.

>(1) locally disable strict checking for the symbolic references:
>
>   ...
>       no strict 'refs';   # allow symbolic refs for the next two lines
>       $main::foovar = $thisline.'_foo';
>       $$main::foovar = $thisline;

Ah, I have to explicitly reference $main:: -- thanks!

>this can, btw, also be written somewhat shorter as follows, not
>requiring the intermediate variable $foovar

I tried to do that, but couldn't get the braces and stuff right.

>(2) use eval to define the new variables at runtime:
>
>   ...
>     eval "\$main::${thisline}_foo = '$thisline'";

Do you have any opinion on which would be more readable and understandable 
to the average Perl coder?

>Also, note that, in all cases you need to fully qualify the variable
>names (i.e. prefix them with "main::", or whatever package they're in),
>if you cannot predeclare them.

Thanks for all your help!

                                                 --Kai MacTane
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