For example

n:\>ls c:\foo
ls: c:/foo: Not a directory

n:\>ls c:\foo 2> c:\tmp\error.txt

n:\>more c:\tmp\error.txt
ls: c:/foo: Not a directory

n:\>
[download]

Regards,
Helgi Briem

Thanks it works. Questions: What does "return" do different compared to "next" in a subroutine? Also does the way I did my return part look okay? The error output (Exiting subroutine via next at C:\Perl\bin\myscript.pl line 188.) never comes up in my text file (bas.txt) for some unknown reason?

  if ($data =~ /patternmatch/i)
    {
        open FILY, ">bas2.txt";
        print FILY "Skip $data\n";
        return ">bas2.txt";
    }
[download]

next is for loop control while return is for returning from a subroutine. Witness the different behaviour in this (demonstration only) code:

mysub(5);

sub mysub {
  my $val = shift || 8;
    
  print "next demo: \n";
  for (1..10){
    next if $_ == $val;
    print $_, "\n";
  }
  print "\nreturn demo: \n";
  for (1..10){
    return if $_ == $val;
    print $_, "\n";
  }
}
[download]

--
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. -Margaret Mitchell

 if ($data =~ /patternmatch/i)
  {
    open FILY, ">bas2.txt";
    print FILY "Skip $data\n";
    return ">bas2.txt";
  }
[download]

Just so that we don't steer you wrong, could you tell us what you think this piece of code is doing? Just a plain english description will do.

It might also be advantageous to you to post a little more of your code, including the rest of this subroutine, and the part where it is called.

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Well It's better than the Abottoire, but Yorkshire!