The only way to get the result you note is to call that_sub() before this_sub(). This prints "Hello Jeff" just fine

sub this_sub
{
   $this_variable = "Jeff";
}

sub that_sub
{
   print "Hello "."$this_variable";
}

this_sub();
that_sub();

# prints
Hello Jeff
[download]

All I can presume is that your test case above is not the same as your real code as the test works exactly as expected. this_sub sets the global var $this_variable which is then available everwhere.

cheers

tachyon

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