When I call the function

counttags(+);

When the script is compiled, I get a error,

Syntax error at vtag.pl at line 275, near "+)"
Execution of vtag.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

Yes. That's what I expected. You can't just drop an operator in the middle of some source code at random and expect the compiler to know what to do.

On the otherhand, if I have the code as counttags("+");, the $stag and $etag values remain 0.

This is probably because of one of the other errors that have been pointed out to you in this thread. Developing with use strict and use warnings will almost certainly help you track down problems like this.

--
<http://dave.org.uk>

"The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
-- Chip Salzenberg


In reply to Re^3: Counting the start and end elements in a line by davorg
in thread Counting the start and end elements in a line by rsriram

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.