I think the reason __DATA__ is frequently used on PerlMonks (probably more than in real code) is because it's particularly well-suited for giving sample code. Many questions here are about how to process data from a sequential file, and putting the data into a __DATA__ section gives file semantics for operating on the data, but without having to include in your post "Now put this data into x.in and then run the program with standard input redirected from x.in".

In reply to Re: Static Data ("__DATA__" vs. "our") by sgifford
in thread Static Data ("__DATA__" vs. "our") by ChrisR

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