Honestly, if maintainability is an issue, and you are afraid that a lexical block enclosing a couple of subs is going to turn out to be a nightmare to keep track of, you're reached that point where packages and modules are there help you keep it all straight.

You may be right. This is actually already in a module, so I may need to split it into a sub module. Believe it or not, I am trying not to be too fancy because I am a perl novice.

local seems to be doing the trick, but I have to turn off strict to use it and that makes me uncomfortable. Thanks

Don't turn off strict; use vars qw/variable names/;



Dave

You don't have to turn off strict if you either
a) package-qualify the variable name, as in my previous example; or
b) declare the variable using our or use vars.

our is supposed to be a more modern replacement for use vars, but they don't do exactly the same thing, so which one is most appropriate really depends on your specific circumstances.

jdporter
The 6th Rule of Perl Club is -- There is no Rule #6.