This really depends on how your files are set up. Here's an example using accounts.pm module file, and a script.pl file that uses it.

Both files are in the same directory, so I use use lib '.'; so the script knows to look in the current directory for the module file. Then in the module file, I use Exporter to set things up so you can then import the results() sub properly from the module:

accounts.pm module file

package accounts;
use strict;
use warnings;

require Exporter;
our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
our @EXPORT_OK = qw(results);

sub account {
    my $file = shift;
    open my $fh, '<', $file or die $!;
    my @accounts = <$fh>;
    close $fh;
    chomp @accounts;
    return \@accounts;
}
sub results {
    my $file = shift;
    my $results = account($file);
    return $results;
}
1;

[download]

script.pl script file

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

use lib '.';
use accounts qw(results);

my $file = "accounts.txt";

my $newdata = results($file);

print Dumper $newdata;

[download]

accounts.txt file:

a
b
c
d
e

[download]

Output:

$VAR1 = [
          'a',
          'b',
          'c',
          'd',
          'e'
        ];

[download]

In reply to Re: Returning data from a sub routine in a module. by stevieb
in thread Returning data from a sub routine in a module. by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.