in reply to How do I read an entire file into a variable?

   $/=undef;                #sets the record separator to [undef] so i
+t keeps reading
                            #until there is nothing more to read
   open FILE, "<yourfile";
   my $data=<FILE>;
   close FILE;
   $/="\n";                 #set it back to \n so if you try to read f
+rom the
                            #terminal it only takes a line at a time

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RE: RE: How do I read an entire file into a variable?
by Kasei (Novice) on Dec 29, 1999 at 06:08 UTC
    Probably better to use local() and a block so as not to cause problems if somebody else set $/ to something other than \n (assumptions can come back to haunt you) . 
    my $data;
{
  local($/) = undef;
  open (FILE, "<yourfile");
  $data = <FILE>;
  close FILE;
}

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[d/l]
      Good point... although I think now that I see nate's method I think that will be my method of choice in the future.
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