Dear Fellow Monks,

I'm having quite a problem, using a function to alter a global variable. I'm hoping you guys can show me how to use a function to modify multiple variables. I'm trying to convert (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS) to unix time(seconds starting from 1970). I'm thinking about using Time::Local for the conversion. The error I'm getting before even trying to convert is:

Can't modify constant item in scalar assignment at calendar.pl line 276, near ""$year.$month.$day";"
Execution of calendar.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

Code:

my $date;
dateconverter($date_begin);
print $date, "\n";

sub dateconverter {
    my $year, my $month, my $day, my $hour, my $min, my $sec;
    ($year, $month, $day) = split /-/, $_;
    ($day, $hour) = split / /, $day;
    ($hour, $min, $sec) = split /:/, $hour;
    main::date = "$year.$month.$day";
    # get unix seconds for $date
        return main::date;
}

[download]
I originally tryed just setting the date by using $date = "$year..."; but read one of Ovid's nodes on scope and tried main::date with no luck. Thanks alot in advance for any advice!

bW

Perl - the breakfast of Champions!

In reply to Modifying Global Variable by Willman023

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.