I think dvergin has pretty well covered it -- declare the variables right when you're going to use them.

The exception for that would be when you have quite a large subroutine (one module that I wrote and still maintain is 2000 lines long, and mostly consists of a single routine 1750 lines long) -- in that case I put virtually all of my variable declarations at the top of the routine. That way there was less searching for variable declarations scattered around.

--t. alex

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