That's fine, nothing wrong with asking basic questions. And I agree, it can be difficult to find the right perldoc page when you don't already know what to look for. But do take a look at perldoc.perl.org; it's fairly well-organized, as well as searchable (though unfortunately not for tokens like $").

If you're serious about Perl programming, I'd also recommend picking up a copy (or getting your employer to pick up a copy) of Programming Perl, aka "The Camel". It's an excellent, must-have book, and it has a big reference section.

There's even a chapter on special variables, which also provides a clear and concise answer to your original question (p. 655 in the third edition):

Program-wide Special Variables

These variables are truly global in the fullest sense -- they mean the same thing in every package, because they're all forced into package main when unqualified (except for @F, which is special in main, but not forced). If you want a temporary copy of one of these, you must localize it in the current dynamic scope.

[...]
$" ($LIST_SEPARATOR)
[...]

There's gentler introductions to Perl if you're new to it, but as a general reference, it's invaluable.

In reply to Re^3: Scope of separator variable by AppleFritter
in thread Scope of separator variable by shadowSage

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