I have a subroutine that gets a user's information from the /etc/shadow file and returns the following information about the user: locked/unlocked, pw_min_time, pw_max_time, pw_warn_time, inactive time, and expire date.

My question is this... How do I have a subroutine that returns all those values, but allows users to specify what values to return. I have it right now return all values, and user could call it like this:

my ($locked,undef,undef,undef,undef,$expire)=$ssh->get_user_info($logi
+nid);

[download]
However, I'd much rather user's be able to do something like this: 
my ($locked_status,$expire)=$ssh->get_user_info($loginid);

my $inactive=$ssh->get_user_info($loginid);

[download]
In other words, even though the subroutine returns all values, I would like the script to be able to define what values it actually wants, rather than saying undef.

In reply to Returning multiple values from subroutine by walkingthecow

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.