Re^2: Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs"

Bart: Thanks for that. It did not change the error message one iota. Here is the block that defines $config{'db'}. It parses a plain text config.db file which defines four connection variables (host, database, user, password). Similar blocks parse configuration parameters for different elements of the %config hash, which is returned with the Exporter with:

 
our %config;
[download]

while (<DB>) {
  chomp;
  next if /^\s*\#/;              # Allow comments
  next if /^\s*$/;               # Allow blank lines
  unless (/=/) {                 # All other lines must look like: KEY
+ = VAL
    die "invalid variable assignment in supporters.db: $_";
  }
  my ($key, $val) = split(/\s*=\s*/,$_,2);   # Key and value are separ
+ated by equals and maybe space
  $key =~ s/^\s*//;      # Strip any leading space from the key
#  $val =~ s/(\$(\w+))/$config{$2}/g;  # Very simple (read: brittle) v
+ariable interpolation
  $val =~ s/ *$//g;           # Strip trailing white space from value
  $config{'db'}{'$key'} = $val;
}
close DB;
[download]

should this be creating references, instead of simply hash elements? Sorry for delay in responding. I was interrupted by a customer here. Thanks for your help and insight.

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Re^3: Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" by ikegami (Patriarch) on Nov 26, 2005 at 03:27 UTC
`$config{'db'}{'$key'} = $val;` should be `$config{'db'}{$key} = $val;` but I don't think that will fix your error. The error seems to indicate that `$config{'db'}` was assigned `''` or `undef`. Are you sure both `%config` are the same variable?	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" by hesco (Deacon) on Nov 26, 2005 at 05:08 UTC
You wrote: Are you sure both %config are the same variable? Both %config and what? are the same variable?	[reply]
Re^5: Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" by ikegami (Patriarch) on Nov 26, 2005 at 05:15 UTC
The %config in the first snippet and %config in the second snippet. Maybe they are both package (`our`) variables, but in different packages. Maybe one is a package (`our`) variable, and the other is a lexical (`my`) variable. ~~Maybe they are both lexical (`my`) variables, but different lexical varibbles (i.e. in different scopes).~~ [There's an `our` in one of the snippets.]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
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Re^3: Can't use string ("") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" by bart (Canon) on Nov 26, 2005 at 09:16 UTC
Ugh! You're using `%config` both as input, for "variable values", thus containing strings. as for the output, in `$config{'db'}`, as a hash ref. My gut feeling tells me this, or something very similar, is the cause of your problem. You may have tried to use `$config{'db'}` as a string value first, which could well cause your problem. Just put your input and output in different variables.	[reply] [d/l] [select]