Thanks all for your replies. Unfortunately we're using Perl 5.6, Win32. We can't go to 5.8, as some of the libraries don't exist for that version. Likewise, IO::Scalar isn't available as a ppm package. However, I have tried using IO::String - and I'm obviously missing something. I'm a newbie, so apologies in advance for whatever is wrong with my code: 
use IO::String;
use strict;
my $output;
tie *IO, IO::String->new($output);

my $col1 = "first";
my $col2 = "second";

write (IO);

print $output;

format IO =
=============== ====================
@<<<<<<<<<<<<<: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
$col1, $col2

[download]
I was hoping that printing $output would give me the report. Any advice appreciated

In reply to bull;Re: writing to a variable by Anonymous Monk
in thread writing to a variable by astroboy

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