Say you have a text file with the following information. 
state=$state
zip=$zip
phone=$phone

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And you have the following 
my $state = "IA";
my $zip = "44444";
my $phone = "343-343-3443";
open(FILE, "file.txt") or die "oops $!";
my @contents = <FILE>;
close(FILE) or die "oops $!";

print @contents;

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This prints out 
state=$state
zip=$zip
phone=$phone

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instead of 
state=IA
zip=44444
phone=343-343-3443

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So obviously it's reading everything literally, even if the vars are assigned prior to reading of the text file. I know I can s/\$var/$var//; but the question isn't how to get around it, it's WHY is it this way? Why aren't the variables being used as variables if it's read from a file?

Is there a way to read from a file where it WOULD do as expected without s///?

In reply to Reading from txt makes variables literal? by Anonymous Monk

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