I have a text file that contains variables that looks like this:

255.255.255.255 domain.com smtp.domain.com user name <user\@domain.com> sendto <sendto\@sendto.domain.com></p? I use: 

    open (VARIABLES, "<variables.dat");
    @Variables=<VARIABLES>;
    close VARIABLES;

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to read the variables into an array. However, when I try and take user name <user\@domain.com> which is $Variable3 to send an email, only user name is recognised. I am losing <user\@domain.com>. What is wrong here?

Should I be using placeholders? Is there a better way to read variables with special characters into an array? Are the variables being loaded properly, but I need to handle them differently in the script?

I did not think that < and > were special charaters, and adding a \ infront fo them does not help my script. Any thoughts on which way I should direct my learnings?

Please advise,
Simon

In reply to reading scalars from text file by sdyates

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