cleaner(\$details);   AND   $details = cleaner($details);

my $dirty;
sub cleaner($dirty){
    my $clean = ($dirty =~ s/\n/<br>/g;);
    $clean =~ s/\t/ /g;
    return $clean;
}

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Perl doesn't work that way. Passing data through to a sub goes via @_, not via named arguments. 
sub cleaner {
    my($dirty) = @_;
    ...
}

[download]
And your other huge mistake is in this line: 
    my $clean = ($dirty =~ s/\n/<br>/g;);

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Let's start by dropping the inner semicolon...

You assign the result of the s/// to $clean, which is the number of substitutions. Remember: s/// does an in-place substitution. The correct syntax for what you want is: 

    (my $clean = $dirty) =~ s/\n/<br>/g;

[download]
which first assigns the value of $dirty to $clean, and then the substitution takes place on the Lvalue, $clean. Cut into smaller peices, this does the same thing: 
    my $clean = $dirty;
    $clean =~ s/\n/<br>/g;

[download]

All put together, you no longer need $dirty: 

sub cleaner {
    (my $clean = $_[0]) =~ s/\n/<br>/g;
    $clean =~ s/\t/ /g;
    return $clean;
}

$details = cleaner($details);

[download]
The code can still be further reduced to: 
sub cleaner {
    local $_ = shift;
    s/\n/<br>/g;
    s/\t/ /g;
    return $_;
}

$details = cleaner($details);

[download]

In reply to Re: Problem creating a function by bart
in thread Problem creating a function by Willman023

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