Dear Monks,

The following code does not compile:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Carp qw(croak);

package Test;
    #use Carp qw(croak);
    sub croak_test {
        croak "this is a test";
    }
    
Test::croak_test;
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and produces the following output:

String found where operator expected at croaktest.pl line 8, near "cro
+ak "this is a test""
        (Do you need to predeclare croak?)
syntax error at croaktest.pl line 8, near "croak "this is a test""
croaktest.pl had compilation errors.
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But if I put the "use Carp qw(croak);" statement after the package it does work:

use strict;
use warnings;
#use Carp qw(croak);

package Test;
    use Carp qw(croak);
    sub croak_test {
        croak "this is a test";
    }
    
Test::croak_test;
[download]

I don't understand why the "use Carp qw(croak)" seemingly must be declared after the package, but the "use strict" doesn't. How could I determine what is necessary for other "use" statements?

If someone could offer some insight as to what I'm not understanding, I'd really appreciate it.