Hi. I have a script that uses Data::Dumper and prints the contents of a hash to a file: 
print DATA Dumper( \%somehash );

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When the script is rerun, it initializes that hash by reading the file: 
open DATA, "<$datafile" or die "$!";
{
    local $/;
    %somehash  = %{ eval <DATA> };
}

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This works fine, but sometimes the datafile is empty. When that happens, I get the following message: 
Can't use an undefined value as a HASH reference at somescript.pl line
+ 22, <DATA> chunk 1.

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I tried to put the eval in a block to trap it: 
%somehash  = %{ eval { <DATA> } };

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Unfortunately, I then get the following error message: 
Ambiguous use of %{eval{...}} resolved to %eval{...} at somescript.pl 
+line 22.
Global symbol "%eval" requires explicit package name at somescript.pl 
+line 22.
syntax error at somescript.pl line 22, near "%{ eval { "
syntax error at somescript.pl line 23, near "}"
Execution of somescript.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

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Anyone know how I can work around this? I thought about putting an empty {} in the file, but it would be nice to know what I'm doing wrong with the eval.

Thanks!

In reply to Data::Dumper and eval by Anonymous Monk

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