#!/usr/bin/perl

#supply test strings on the command line for ease
$test1 = shift(@ARGV);

sub validate_text
{
        if ( $test1 =~ m/^[A-Za-z0-9\-\ ]+$/ )
        {
                print "Text clean\n";
                return ($test1);
        } else {
                $errorstring = "Funny business with variables occuring, have attempted to fix";

                print "$errorstring\n";
                print "dollartest before fixing = $test1\n";

                $test1 =~ s/^[^A-Za-z\-\ ]+$//g;
                print "dollartest after fixing = $test1\n";

                return ($test1);
        }
}
$validated = &validate_text;

print "the validated text is: $validated\n";