in reply to Using exported symbols

The exported symbols need to live in the current package e.g
use vars '@ary'; @ary = ( rec_length => 'A4', fname => 'A20', lname => 'A20', );
This is because lexical variables don't live in symbol tables (they live in a private 'lexical pad'), which is what Exporter works with.
HTH

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broquaint