use strict and begin

tsvik_t has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

hi there,
I put in the BEGIN function a connection to the database, lets say:

BEGIN {


$dbh = DBI->connect($DNS, "login", "password")

}
[download]

and I use strict, how can I use my connection ($dbh) latter on the program?

Thanks Tsvika

Edit by tye

Comment on use strict and begin Download Code

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Re: use strict ans begin by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Jul 17, 2002 at 11:30 UTC
What exactly is the problem? `my $dbh; BEGIN {$dbh = DBI -> connect (...)} ... $dbh -> prepare (...);` [download] will work fine. But why are you using a `BEGIN` block to set up the database connection? Why not just `my $dbh = DBI -> connect (...);` [download] And if you really want to place it inside a block, I suggest using an `INIT` block. Abigail	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: use strict ans begin by jmcnamara (Monsignor) on Jul 17, 2002 at 11:30 UTC
You could use the vars pragma to declare a global variable. Or in Perl 5.6.0 or later you can use the `our` keyword: `#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use vars '$dbh'; # In Perl >= 5.6.0: # our $dbh; BEGIN { $dbh = DBI->connect($DNS, "login", "password"); }` [download] -- John.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: use strict ans begin by Abigail-II (Bishop) on Jul 17, 2002 at 11:32 UTC
Why would you want to use a package variable and not a lexical one? Abigail	[reply]
Re: Re: use strict ans begin by jmcnamara (Monsignor) on Jul 17, 2002 at 11:53 UTC
You are right. There isn't any obvious reason here to use a package variable instead of a lexical, except perhaps to demonstrate a hole in your knowledge. `:-)` I didn't know that you could declare a variable with `my()` before a BEGIN block as in your example. -- John.	[reply]
Re: use strict ans begin by Cine (Friar) on Jul 17, 2002 at 12:36 UTC
If you are using mod_perl I suggest you take a look at Apache::DBI that does this and much more. T I M T O W T D I	[reply]