How can i "include" an executable section of code

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

Dear All, I am in the process of converting about 150 individual data conversion scripts to a single, common script. I have concluded that 99% of the code is common to all users, and just 1% is user-specific. What I want to be able to do is to pass the user-name as a parameter, like "convert client1" and have a sub in the script hook out the relevant block of conversion code. Like so..

common code;
 include $ARGV[0].code;
more common code;
[download]

Here's an example of my user-specific code:

if ( m/(\S+),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+)/o )
  {
  @fields        = split(/,/);
  $CLI           = $fields[0];
  $key           = $fields[1];
  $product       = $fields[2];
  $quantity      = $fields[3];
  $price         = $fields[4];
  $salesdate     = $fields[5];
  }
[download]

Problem is, I am not aware of an "include" facility in Perl (called include), and can't think of an obvious workaround. The problem as I see it is that the code segment needs to be pulled in and executed as patr of the main script: will this work ? TIA

Comment on How can i "include" an executable section of code Select or Download Code

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Re: How can i "include" an executable section of code by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Jan 13, 2004 at 09:34 UTC
Something like this: `my $hashref = do $path . $clientfile;` After Compline, Zaxo	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: How can i "include" an executable section of code by mildewhall (Initiate) on Jan 13, 2004 at 10:08 UTC
Wow ! Can't believe it was that simple.. next time you're in Alton I'll buy you a beer :-) Thanks to all those that offered suggestions.	[reply]
Re: How can i "include" an executable section of code by davido (Cardinal) on Jan 13, 2004 at 09:36 UTC
Yes, Perl doesn't have `include`. It doesn't have a preprocessor like C does either. However, it does have use, require, do, and eval. Dave	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: How can i "include" an executable section of code by DrHyde (Prior) on Jan 13, 2004 at 11:03 UTC
Of course, you can use the C pre-processor if that floats your boat. It's probably not the right solution though :-)	[reply]
Re: Re: How can i "include" an executable section of code by mildewhall (Initiate) on Jan 14, 2004 at 11:28 UTC
As a followup, having tested the "do" option, I found that using "require" was altogether the best option, especially in terms of memory usage on large files. `$client = $Options{'c'}; # # call in the relevant client code # require "$client.segment"; #` [download] and the $client.segment file contains `sub DoClient { # client 'A' my $EURO = 1.35; if ( m/(\S+),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+),(\S+)/o ) { @fields = split(/,/); ...... } }1;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]