#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w use strict; lookup(22); lookup(22, 'data'); my $var = 111; lookup(22, 'data', $var); $var = 0; lookup(22, 'data', $var); sub lookup { print "Num params", scalar (@_), "\n"; my $self = shift; my $data_type = shift or print "type not provided ConfReaderlookup\n"; my $item = shift or print "item not provided ConfReaderlookup\n"; print "ITEM isnt in here actually\n" unless defined $item; print "----------------------------\n"; }