Thanks all for your replies. Unfortunately we're using Perl 5.6, Win32. We can't go to 5.8, as some of the libraries don't exist for that version. Likewise, IO::Scalar isn't available as a ppm package. However, I have tried using IO::String - and I'm obviously missing something. I'm a newbie, so apologies in advance for whatever is wrong with my code:

use IO::String;
use strict;
my $output;
tie *IO, IO::String->new($output);

my $col1 = "first";
my $col2 = "second";

write (IO);

print $output;

format IO =
=============== ====================
@<<<<<<<<<<<<<: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
$col1, $col2
[download]

I was hoping that printing $output would give me the report. Any advice appreciated