I think Perl Best Practices recommends the module AppConfig.pm (Available through CPAN and also PPM if you're using Active State). I was curious if a solution could be reached that way; this is an implementation of AppConfig for this kind of problem.

The config file is named email.conf and contains:

#
# My email configuration file
#

pro_box = 1

[pro_box]

emails = person1@mycompany.com
emails = person2@mycompany.com
emails = person3@mycompany.com
emails = person4@mycompany.com

[default]

emails = person2@mycompany.com
emails = person3@mycompany.com
emails = person4@mycompany.com

[download]
And the code to handle it is:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

use AppConfig qw( :argcount );

my $config = AppConfig->new( {CREATE => 1, 
                      GLOBAL => { ARGCOUNT => ARGCOUNT_LIST }, 
                      });
my $config_file = "email.conf";
$config->define("pro_box", { ARGCOUNT => ARGCOUNT_ONE } );
$config->file($config_file);
#
# Fetch pro box value
#
my $pro_box = $config->pro_box;
#
# Fetch arrays. Get rid of the "1" in @array[0].
#
my @pro_emails = @{$config->pro_box_emails};
shift @pro_emails;
my @default_emails = @{$config->default_emails};
shift @default_emails;

print "Pro Box = $pro_box \n";

print "\n" ;
my @mail_to = ($pro_box) ? @pro_emails : @default_emails ;

for (@mail_to ) {
    print "My addresses are: $_ \n";
}

[download]
The output from the code is:

C:\Code>perl test_app_config.pl
Pro Box = 1

My addresses are: person1@mycompany.com
My addresses are: person2@mycompany.com
My addresses are: person3@mycompany.com
My addresses are: person4@mycompany.com

[download]

In reply to Re: External Array of Emails by dwm042
in thread External Array of Emails by Anonymous Monk

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