Use the CGI module if you're doing CGI with Perl. It provides a header() method, and a param() method, which mostly work as you expect. Read the POD for details. It's been years since I last messed around with plain old CGI, and I don't even have a CGI-enabled environment configured at the moment that I can use for testing.

use CGI;

my $q = CGI->new;
print $q->header( 
  -type                => 'application/vnd.ms-excel',
  -Content-disposition => 'attachment; filename=BOBreports.xls',
  -pragma              => 'no-cache',
  -expires             => 'now',
);

print $q->param('hiddenExportText'), "\n";
[download]

The header method conveniently passes through parameters that it doesn't know what to do with. For example, '-pragma' becomes 'Pragma: '

For the brave new world in web work, see Mojolicious or Mojolicious::Lite, or Dancer.

Hello there nadarajan, search is translation, its lookup like dictionary, try it like this  [ddg://site:perlmonks.org Content-Disposition: attachment; filename],  [google://site:perlmonks.org Content-Disposition: attachment; filename], [Content-Disposition: attachment; filename] site:perlmonks.org Content-Disposition: attachment; filename, site:perlmonks.org Content-Disposition: attachment; filename, Content-Disposition: attachment; filename -> Content-Disposition... odd behavior in IE, Re: How to download a file from the server (content disposition CGI->header( qw{ -type mime/type -attachment filename } ) )

raw "cgi"

#!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict;
print "Content-type: application/octet-stream\n";
print "Content-disposition: attachment; filename=big-test.csv\n\n";
print "Test,One,Two,Three\n";
exit;
[download]

my $app = sub {
    return
    [ ## response
        [ ## headers
            'Content-Disposition' => 'attachment; filename="$filename"
+',
            'Content-length' => '3',
            'Content-Type' => '$mimetype',
        ],
        [ ## content
          123
        ]
    ];
};
[download]

CGI.pm objects!(yes)

#!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI ( );
binmode STDOUT;
my $q = CGI->new;
print $q->header(
    -type => $mimetype,
    -attachment => $filename,
    -Content_length => -s $filehandle,
);
...
[download]

CGI.pm functional

#!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI qw( param header );
binmode STDOUT;
print header(
    -type => $mimetype,
    -attachment => $filename,
    -Content_length => -s $filehandle,
);
...
[download]

important details

Copy/paste from Re: To call a .pl file when a button is pressed on a GUI created using Perl CGI (webserver) for the links below

Its simple, you need a webserver

Why? Because webpages and CGI needs a webserver, thats how it works

Its weird that so many folks manage to create a GUI using Perl CGI without understanding this

learn about the internet,Web Programming: For Beginners, to get an overall picture of how the internet works, how tcp/ip, sockets, html, ajax, all fit together....

See also Mojolicious::Lite +and jQuery +AJAX + Mojo::Template

And a copy-pasta for you:)

Also, there are checklists for that , Basic debugging checklist , brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem, CGI Help Guide , Troubleshooting Perl CGI scripts

Yes, work through these checklists, when you find a problem on the list, use a solution from the list, when you find a problem not on the list (rare), post the error message and problem description here

brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem, CGI Help Guide , Troubleshooting Perl CGI scripts

So examine your server configuration and compare to https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/public_html.html#cgi / Apache Tutorial: Dynamic Content with CGI

learn about the internet,Web Programming: For Beginners, to get an overall picture of how the internet works, how tcp/ip, sockets, html, ajax, all fit together.

Uhh ... gotta say it, but ...

The most-significant textual clip from the OP, IMHO, is this one:   The most important line is header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=BOBreport.xls"); I need to have it in my perl script to export a html table data to Excel.

It quite-frankly appears to me that the OP is most-interested in the output of the aforesaid (PHP ...) code.   If this is indeed the case, then there is in fact no actual requirement to “translate the following PHP code to” ... (anything!)

If you are only concerned with the (HTML) output of a computer program, then you do not care in the slightest what programming-language was originally used to generate that output.

If the Perl program that you contemplate is destined to be a client of the program that (somehow ...) produces the “HTML table data,” this Perl program need only be concerned with “how to correctly parse this HTML data, regardless of its source.”

On the other hand, if the Perl program that you contemplate is destined to replace entirely the aforesaid program as “the root-source of the data being sought” ... then both PHP and the HTML that it now produces become irrelevant.