On Camel2, p122, it explains that formats "are declared rather than executed, so they may occur at any point in your program." I read that and decided to place my formats at the end of my script.

However, I discovered that where I could place a format seems to be constrained by the scope of the variables on the argument line.

If the vars on the argument line are global, I can put the format anywhere. But strict doesn't like global vars (and neither do I).

I remembered reading somewhere that I could think of a hash as providing a mini-namespace, so I declared a hash using <KBD>my</KBD> at the top of my script. I use values from the hash as args to the format. (See the code below.) That way, I can limit the number of "top-level" <KBD>my</KBD> variables.

However, I'm not really happy with this solution either. I'm wondering if there's actually a clever way to get around this problem.

Thanks,

Carl-Joseph


use strict;

#
# Hash to act as a "mini-namespace" for the format
#
my %GRID;

&printit( "Line 1", "Total Income", "\$5.00" );

sub printit {
   my( $prefix_text, $left_text, $right_text ) = @_;

   ( $GRID{"prefix_text"}, $GRID{"left_text"}, $GRID{"right_text"} ) =
+ ( $prefix_text, $left_text, $right_text );

   $~ = "GRID"; write;
}

#
# Placing my formats here.
#
format GRID = 
--------------------------------------------------------
@>>>: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<    |     @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
 $GRID{"prefix_text"}, $GRID{"left_text"}, $GRID{"right_text"};
--------------------------------------------------------
.

__END__

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In reply to Format with Args at End of Script by Carl-Joseph

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