Kind Monks, I'm trying to pass a string variable to a subroutine in my library for some gentle reformatting because the nasty characters my customers insist on typing into their descriptions occasionally makes the HTML page break.

For example, I want to exchange a tick mark (') with (& rsquo ;) (minus those parentheses of course and no spaces in the rsquo piece). Below is the main program, and below that is the library containing the subroutine. I've snipped out anything I thought irrelevant.

My print statements show the variable $attr_descr going in, getting some loving massage... but when I view the source on the rendered page, the magical substitutions have disappeared except within the subroutine itself.

I might have gone along with the idea that the "local" would confine my results to the sub itself, but I've used a very similar construct to format some numbers based on customer preferences (see the sub "commify"). That returns the $_ variable nicely but the "cleanup" does not return my variable.

Here is the top part of the View Source results:

attr_descr before Nonwovens testing a tick ' and an 
  at @ and a less than < and a double "<br><br>

attr_descr entering cleanup <br><br>

attr_descr exiting cleanup Nonwovens testing a tick &rsquo; 
  and an at @ and a less than < and a double "<br><br>

attr_descr after Nonwovens testing a tick ' and an 
  at @ and a less than < and a double "

[download]
I believe I am having a dumb blonde moment... anyone care to help me see the (most likely obvious) thing that I'm missing? Thanks! 
#!/usr/local/bin/perl5_8
# Cash Balance program; processes data from main menu program.
use strict;
use ncw_com_library; # contains common subs (commify, timeout, etc.)
use HTML::Template;
use Time::Local;
use DBI;
use CGI ':standard';
my $CGI = CGI->new;

# Clear buffers and set up web page (required)
$|=1;

# [some attributes code snipped out that I believe is irrelevant]

my ($attr_descr, $attr_exists, $sth_attr);

$dbh=DBI->connect("dbi:Oracle:".$databs,$userid,$passwd) ||
                   die "conn attr_sql";
$sth_attr = $dbh->prepare($attr_sel) || 
                   die "prep attr_sql";
$sth_attr ->execute || die "exec attr_sql";

while ( $attr_exists    = $sth_attr->fetch )
      { $project        = $attr_exists->[0];
        $attr_descr     = $attr_exists->[1];

        print "attr_descr before $attr_descr<br>";

        # Put in HTML-friendly characters for any odd characters
        &ncw_com_library::cleanup($attr_descr);

        print "attr_descr after $attr_descr<br>";

        # [some more fetched fields snipped out]
      }

# [snipped out other financial data loops for HTML:TEMPLATE; 
# no issues there]

#################### Begin Section ##############################
# Pass parameters from @loop arrays to template; print report

# [snipped out irrelevant params below]

$template->param(
passdata       => \@loop_data,
attr_descr     => $attr_descr,
project        => $project
                );
print $template->output();
#++++++++++++++++++++ End Section ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


******************************************************************
# This is my library
******************************************************************
package ncw_com_library;
# Contains various common subroutines used by the WRS Reports
1;
use strict;
use DBI;
use Exporter ();
our @ISA = 'Exporter';
our @EXPORT;
use vars @EXPORT=qw/ $asofdt $auth_fail $message $projects
$proj_descr $rpt_dates $rpt_id $rpt_unavail $status /;

# [snipped out unrelated subroutines]

sub cleanup
# Replaces various characters with HTML-friendly characters
{

print "attr_descr entering cleanup $_<br>";

local $_ =  shift @_;
1 while $_ =~ s/^(.*)(')(.*)/$1&rsquo;$3/gm;

print "attr_descr exiting cleanup $_<br>";

return $_;
}



# This sub works with the financial data so I used it as the basis for
# the cleanup sub above.

sub commify
# Formats numbers to two decimal places, put in commas, make negs red)
{
local   $_ =  sprintf "%.2f",  shift @_;
        1 while $_ =~ s/^(-?\d+)(\d\d\d)/$1,$2/;
        $_ =~ s/^(-)(.*)/\($2\)/;
        { if   ( $_ =~ m/^\(.*/ )
               { $_ = "style=\"color:#B22222;\">" . $_ }
          else { $_ = "style=\"color:black;\">" . $_ }
        }
return $_;
}

[download]

In reply to Trouble Getting Local Variable $_ to return reformatted string by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
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