If you are new to perl, as you say you are, it's an excellent idea to get into good habits :).

There is a recognised way of finding when your variables don't exist, and that is to insert the line

use strict;
at the top of your code below the #! line. This forces all variables to be predeclared before they are used, generating compile errors to catch your tired finger typos.

On another note, you might like to try using the super search facility of the monastery, to find if similar questions have been asked before.

rinceWind

--
I'm Not Just Another Perl Hacker

In reply to Re: Check to see if a variable exists by rinceWind
in thread Check to see if a variable exists by Anonymous Monk

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