Could you do us the favor of creating a code example that demonstrates the behavior?

I've taken your exact string and created variables and subroutines/constants as needed to provide a definition for everything the string tries to interpolate. Here is what I get:

#!usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Term::ANSIColor;

sub colorize {
    my($color, $string) = @_;
    return color($color) . $string . color('reset');
}

use constant COUNTER_STATE_VAR => colorize(bright_blue => '(COUNTER_ST
+ATE_VAR)');
use constant COUNTER_START_VAR => colorize(bright_blue => '(COUNTER_ST
+ART_VAR)');

my $desc         = colorize('bright_green' => '|desc|');
my $context_desc = colorize('bright_green' => '|context_desc|');
my $restart      = colorize('bright_green' => '|restart|');

my $var = <<"HERE";
action=setwpos %u +1 ($desc) ; shift ($context_desc) @{[COUNTER_START_
+VAR]} ; shift ($context_desc) @{[COUNTER_STATE_VAR]} ; eval @{[COUNTE
+R_STATE_VAR]} ( \$counter=@{[COUNTER_STATE_VAR]}; ++\$counter; ) ; ad
+d ($context_desc) @{[COUNTER_START_VAR]} ; add ($context_desc) @{[COU
+NTER_STATE_VAR]} ; assign @{[COUNTER_STATE_VAR]} 0 ; set ($context_de
+sc) $restart
HERE

print colorize(bright_red => "<<<<<\n") . $var . colorize(bright_red =
+> ">>>>>\n");
[download]

...produces...

<<<<<
action=setwpos %u +1 (|desc|) ; shift (|context_desc|) (COUNTER_START_
+VAR) ; shift (|context_desc|) (COUNTER_STATE_VAR) ; eval (COUNTER_STA
+TE_VAR) ( $counter=(COUNTER_STATE_VAR); ++$counter; ) ; add (|context
+_desc|) (COUNTER_START_VAR) ; add (|context_desc|) (COUNTER_STATE_VAR
+) ; assign (COUNTER_STATE_VAR) 0 ; set (|context_desc|) |restart|
>>>>>
[download]

Try running it. It looks better in a terminal that supports color; it's easier to see where the interpolation is happening. And then tell us where you were expecting to see interpolation but failing to get the behavior you would expect. If this snippet doesn't reproduce the error you are seeing, then your sample was inadequate in demonstrating the issue, and you'll need to provide us a self-contained snippet we can run to see it happening.

Thank you for your effort, Dave. I tried "snippetting" from my code base, but the output was consistent (the same as your snippet), when not in its own authentic context. It seemed weird to me, I was pretty sure, that I was looking on the right spot, but now I found out, that it wasn't true. Sorry for this distractions from my side, this was my fault, I had $context variable on other place, where $context_desc should be, and line I pasted, was not the right one. We can "close" (or completely delete, as it probably won't be useful for anybody) this node.

PerlMonks really never deletes nodes. But not to worry; we all have asked questions that have been based on mistaken assumptions. It happens, nobody's judging (or they shouldn't be). And the thread still has value, as it demonstrates HERE doc interpolation, and a debugging technique.

Truth be told, I expected that the result of boiling your bug down to a sample snippet would lead you to your answer. I thank you for having taken the time to do that, and am glad that it did help resolve the problem. Whenever I encounter something that makes me think Perl's not behaving as expected I try to practice that same strategy; write a one-liner, or a small (fewer than 25 lines) script that demonstrates the problem. And more often than not I won't even finish typing it before I have the ah-hah moment. It's tremendously unlikely that Perl's HERE docs have a bug in how they handle interpolation that is so glaring that one instance of interpolation would fail to happen. I don't know how many times I've thought to myself, "That shouldn't be happening, I'll pull it into an example snippet so I can play with it." And then presto, the issue turns up.




Dave

> Any tips?

 @{[COUNTER_STATE_VAR]}

@{[...]} is executing code, COUNTER_STATE_VAR could be a function with side effects.

Otherwise please provide us with a short reproducible example and a print of the resulting string.

Probably the problem is on the side of the receiver language not Perl.

COUNTER_STATE_VAR is constant defined this way:

use constant {

  # ...

  COUNTER_STATE_VAR       =>      "%counter",

  # ...

};
[download]

Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce with shorter example. I tried, but the output is consistent, when I am "snippetting" it out of its authentic context. I also cannot provide whole code base, because it contains a lot of information, which cannot be disclosed to third parties. Therefore I am seeking for tips, but the resolution is on me.