If your database column contains a NULL in this column then $value_a will contain the Perl value "undef". The warning you are getting is saying that you are trying to match a regular expression against an undefined variable.

You probably want to change the code to something more like this:

if (defined $value_a) {
  if($value_a =~/personal/) {
    $value_a = "checked";
  } else {
    $value_a = '';
  } 
} else {
  $value_a = '';
}

[download]

You should also consider whether you really want to check the value of the variable using a regex match. If you just want to check that the value is "checked", then using the string equality operator will be more efficient.

if (defined $value_a) {
  if($value_a eq 'personal') {
    $value_a = 'checked';
  } else {
    $value_a = '';
  } 
} else {
  $value_a = '';
}

[download]

Update: Fixed a couple of typos (thanks johngg)

--

<http://dave.org.uk>

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

In reply to Re: Uninitialized Value Question by davorg
in thread Uninitialized Value Question by Anonymous Monk

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.