It depends a lot on context. You can have only one __DATA__ section, but you could put section markers in it if appropriate (your code would need to recognize them though).

Another technique for embedding blocks of input is to use here docs (see the <<EOF section in perlop):

use warnings;
#use strict;

my $text1 = <<TEXT;
This is the text for \$text1.
Note that multiple lines are allowed.
Note too that the terminating line must exactly match the string betwe
+en the <<
and the ; on the starting line. In particular any white space must mat
+ch
exactly.
TEXT

print $text1;

[download]

Prints:

This is the text for $text1.
Note that multiple lines are allowed.
Note too that the terminating line must exactly match the string betwe
+en the <<
and the ; on the starting line. In particular any white space must mat
+ch
exactly.

[download]

Other tricks that may help for posting questions here are discussed in I know what I mean. Why don't you?.

Update: fixed link

DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel

In reply to Re^3: Problem using transliteration to modify a variable... by GrandFather
in thread Problem using transliteration to modify a variable... by cgmd

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