#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# "our $n;" disables "use strict 'vars';" for $n for the
# remainder of the lexical scope in which it is located.

sub foo { our $n; $n++; }

our $n = 10;

print "$n\n";  # 10
foo();
print "$n\n";  # 11

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Well, this example helps me somewhat (though seemingly (to me) not directly with what I was originally confused about). Thank you. I'd previously always written "our $n = $whatever;" assuming that it atomically meant, "create a package global named $n with $whatever value". Looking more closely at our though, I see that that statement is really doing *2* separate things:

  1. Letting me refer to $main::n as just plain $n.
  2. Setting $n to something ($n springs into existence at *this* point).

(Should've read the docs on our more carefully -- they're very good.)

So, in your example above, I now see that "our $n;" in sub foo isn't defining anything -- just telling perl that I'll be referring to $main::n in here as "$n". :)

In reply to Re^2: Using an "outer" lexical in a sub? by cornballer
in thread Using an "outer" lexical in a sub? by cornballer

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