#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; ### sub datestamp(){ use POSIX; return strftime("%D %r",localtime); } my $var_day = datestamp(); ### print <>$var_day<< But how do you do "function" interpolation? The next line prints itself literally, instead of being substituted with the function's return value. Is there some other way of writing this that does what I want? HERE here's some more text... la la la SECOND print "done!";