question on strings

kprasanna_79 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Revered monks,

i have a variable which holds a value returned from a subroutine

$var = $pack->get_proj();
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i am using this value for connecting the db

new myproj::DB(["dbi:Oracle:$db",$var,$var.length($var)]);
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But this thows time out error. But when i hardcode the value it works fine

new myproj::DB(["dbi:Oracle:$db","proj",$var.length($var)]);
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The only difference is the doublequote present in the character (proj), which is nothng but string. Is there any way i can make the $var as string like to_string($var).

I have verified all the ways and only this is the matter

Please throw some light on this.
-Prasanna.K

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Re: question on strings by mreece (Friar) on Mar 26, 2007 at 16:56 UTC
are you sure `$var` contains what you think it does? `use Data::Dumper; warn Dumper($var);` [download] if you think stringifying $var will really help, you can do it via concatenation to an empty string (`$var.''`) or by interpolating it in quotes (`"$var"`).	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: question on strings by Fletch (Bishop) on Mar 26, 2007 at 17:06 UTC
Original question aside: using indirect object notation for method calls is advised against; that'd be better written as `myproj::DB->new( ... )` lowercase package names are reserved for use as compiler pragmas; granted "myproj" is probably safe, but it just . . . looks wrong Passing the list of args in an arrayref also looks strange. You're building an anonymous array which you're probably going to deference in your `new` method after copying it from `$_[0]` anyhow; doesn't make sense to wrap things up in an extra layer (then again there may be a perfectly good reason; but again, looks strange) As for forcing `$var` to be a string, if it is it is. There's not really any coercion needed, but if you absolutely must then `"$var"` would force stringification (but it's usually not needed). Given the other weirdness the problem probably lies elsewhere; as was suggested above make sure that `$var` contains what you think it does through an extra print or in the debugger.	[reply] [d/l] [select]