I am not complaining, whining, or having a pity party of one, mind you. Since I learn by doing and not by reading (and I'm not a big fan of cargo-cult programming because that will invariably bite me in the arse when I have to go back and maintain this stuff), I sometimes get things confused. I like to try to figure out the basics of something as best I can by reading, then tinker with it to gain a better, fuller understanding of what it is I'm playing with. Of course, this means I'll probably post more questions that clearly indicate I have something bass-ackwards, and need to be flipped around or upside down so they're correct.

Your explanation of what the Exporter module does, combined with what I read in the POD, makes it clearer to me now how Exporter works. Most PODS (rightly) assume a better, more well-rounded programming knowledge than I currently possess, and I look forward to feeling like a movie star when all those lightbulbs inevitably go off and I begin to pull it all together in my brain.

:-D

Thanks again for taking the time to flip me to the correct position!

To get you started, perhaps something like this would help (untested):

#MyVars.pm
package MyVars;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter ();
our @ISA = 'Exporter';
our ($one,$two,$three,$four,$five);
our @EXPORT = qw/$one $two $three $four $five call_variables/;

sub call_variables {
  #pick up a string I've passed from previous program via 'spec_vars'
  my $spec_vars = param('spec_vars');
  ($one,$two,$three,$four,$five) = split /~/, $spec_vars;
  return; # nothing; this sub only sets the variables
}
1;


# in your script
use MyVars; # declares variables (actually just aliases them to the on
+es in the MyVars package)

# to start with, they will be undefined (or at least should be treated
+ as such)
call_variables();
# now you can say
$fred = $one . $two;
[download]

Thank you for the example. This really helps me to begin using it, and then tweaking it to make sure I understand the nuts and bolts. I am very grateful for your taking the time to give me an example that so closely relates to what I'm trying to do! :-D

Lori

I've used the example you provided, and it works beautimously. However, I'm wondering if there's a better way to avoid having to repeat these same variable names four times as you can see below (once in the main program and three times in the nc_library.pm package). I have about twenty-five in all, so it would be nice not to have to constantly synchronize them (not to mention the fact that I've also got to put them in HTML::Template for a TMPL_VAR loop thingy). Any ideas? Thanks!

#my second_page.pl:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl5_8
use strict;
use warnings;
use nc_pswd;
use nc_library;
use vars  qw/
    $titlebar $rpt_no $rpt_lbl $rpt_name $rpt_asofdt $project $proj_re
+f
    $attr_dept $attr_descr $attr_award $attr_prog $attr_projpd $attr_f
+yr
    $attr_budgpd $attr_fund $attr_rate $attr_subclass $attr_status
    $attr_spec $attr_equip $attr_resp $attr_pi $rpt_type $from_act_tbl
    $from_bud_tbl /;
use HTML::Template;
use DBI;
use CGI ':standard';
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);                     #remove for PRD
my $CGI = CGI->new;
#clear buffers and set up web page (required)
$|=1;
print $CGI->header;

&call_vars;

#and do other stuff....

# --------------------------------------------------------------- #

#my nc_library.pm
package nc_library;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter ();
our @ISA = 'Exporter';
our ( $titlebar, $rpt_no, $rpt_lbl, $rpt_name, $rpt_asofdt, $project,
      $proj_ref, $attr_dept, $attr_descr, $attr_award, $attr_prog,
      $attr_projpd, $attr_fyr, $attr_budgpd, $attr_fund, $attr_rate,
      $attr_subclass, $attr_status, $attr_spec, $attr_equip,
      $attr_resp, $attr_pi, $rpt_type, $from_act_tbl, $from_bud_tbl );

our @EXPORT = qw/ call_vars commify dberror $CGI $spec_vars
                   $titlebar $rpt_no $rpt_lbl $rpt_name $rpt_asofdt
                   $project $proj_ref $attr_dept $attr_descr
                   $attr_award $attr_prog $attr_projpd $attr_fyr
                   $attr_budgpd $attr_fund $attr_rate $attr_subclass
                   $attr_status $attr_spec $attr_equip $attr_resp
                   $attr_pi $rpt_type $from_act_tbl $from_bud_tbl /;

sub call_vars
{
use CGI ':standard';
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);                     #remove for PRD
my $CGI = CGI->new;
my $spec_vars = param('spec_vars');
(  $titlebar, $rpt_no, $rpt_lbl, $rpt_name, $rpt_asofdt, $project,
    $proj_ref, $attr_dept, $attr_descr, $attr_award, $attr_prog,
    $attr_projpd, $attr_fyr, $attr_budgpd, $attr_fund, $attr_rate,
    $attr_subclass, $attr_status, $attr_spec, $attr_equip, $attr_resp,
    $attr_pi, $rpt_type, $from_act_tbl, $from_bud_tbl)
= split /~/, $spec_vars;
return;
}

sub commify                          #Formats numbers (puts in commas)
{ 
local   $_ =  sprintf "%.2f",  shift @_;
1 while $_ =~ s/^(-?\d+)(\d\d\d)/$1,$2/;
return $_;
}

1;
[download]

Lori