sub next_record() {
  local $/ = "DELIM";
  if (<FILE>)
    return 1;
  return 0;          
}

while (next_record())
{
...
}
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Ack, you're right (of course) ... for some reason I always think of $_ as a global.

Still I find even the goto version nicer and the obvious change for the sub version turns it into the form you posted, but with the do as a sub (which is, again, more readable IMO).

--
James Antill

for some reason I always think of $_ as a global

Well, $_ is a global. That's not the reason it's failing though. Perhaps you think that:

if (<HANDLE>) { ... }
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assigns to $_? If so, that's your mistake. It doesn't. It reads a line, sees if it's true (not just defined, but true), and then tosses the line.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
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