Q:\>perl -w tmp.pl
Global symbol "%myHash" requires explicit package name at tmp.pl line 4.
Global symbol "$myHash" requires explicit package name at tmp.pl line 17.
Global symbol "%myHash" requires explicit package name at tmp.pl line 22.
Execution of tmp.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

Q:\>type tmp.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
%myHash=();
sub populateHash
{
my $MY_FILE="file.properties";
open my $PFILE, '<', $MY_FILE or die "Cannot open '$MY_FILE' $!";
LINE: while (<$PFILE>)
{
# now read the line and remove all white spaces, tab and new line chars or any t
railing spaces
$_ =~ s/\s+$//;
next LINE if (/^\s*#/); # ignore commented lines
next LINE if (/^$/); # ignore null lines
my $n=substr($_,0,index($_,'='));
my $v=substr($_,index($_,'=')+1);
$myHash->{$n}=$v;
}
close $PFILE;
}
&populateHash();
while ( my ($key, $value) = each(%myHash) ) {
print "From myHash --> $key => $value\n";
}