perl our scoping from packages

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

Dear Monks

I have some challenges with scoping.

Package SECANA::TimeString which is just a DateTime module wrapper In the package:

# default exported
our @EXPORT_OK = qw(
  stringformat new_from_db new_from_string from_string epoch_dt now
  $TIMEZONE $FORMAT $LOCALE
);

# default format scope as $SECANA::TimeString::FORMAT
our $FORMAT   = '%Y%m%d%H%M%S' if(! defined $FORMAT);
[download]

This works via the Exporter

use lib $ENV{'SECANAROOT'}."/lib";
use SECANA::TimeString qw($FORMAT);
$FORMAT   = '%a %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %z';
print SECANA::TimeString::now().'\n';

Wed 2008-09-10 10:20:10 +0200
[download]

This does not work:

use lib $ENV{'SECANAROOT'}."/lib";
use SECANA::TimeString;
$SECANA::TimeString::FORMAT = '%a %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %z';
print SECANA::TimeString::now().'\n';

20080910102010
[download]

I get this warning:

This comes independently of using the exporter
Name "SECANA::TimeString::FORMAT" used only once: \
possible typo at ./test-timestring.pl line 17.
[download]

any Idea what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks MortenB, Oslo Norway

Comment on perl our scoping from packages Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: perl our scoping from packages by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 10, 2008 at 09:38 UTC
`our $FORMAT = '%Y%m%d%H%M%S' if(! defined $FORMAT);` [download] uses questionable scoping. It would definitely be an error if `my` was used instead of `our`. It would be better as `our $FORMAT; $FORMAT = '%Y%m%d%H%M%S' if(! defined $FORMAT);` [download] It's also very poor to use a global variable as a parameter. But that's off topic. I'm not actually going to go on topic since I can't trust any of your code. You obviously didn't run it or you'd have `\n` (the two character, not a newline) in your output. Update: Oh boy did I call it! Given what the OP said in his reply, the code he said worked couldn't possibly have worked (even on a case-insensitive file system). Don't lie to us by telling us code works when it has never been run.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: perl our scoping from packages by netrom (Acolyte) on Sep 10, 2008 at 09:32 UTC
Sorry I found the Error! `Seems like functions SECANA::TimeString::now() works but since the package is called Secana::TimeString variables must be accessed case sensitive $Secana::TimeString::FORMAT Sorry, for this, I believed the package to be SECANA::TimeString;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]