Multi-line comment not supported with in an array

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

Hi monks,

I used multi-line comment for few places. The codes are working fine out of the array declearation. But the multi-line comment are not supported inside of the array.( Single line comment supported Here.)

Could someone please explain, why the comments not supported the place and how can i do this.

Below i placed the sample code and their error.

Thanks
Mani Muthu

Sample Code

use Data::Dumper;
($base, $next)=1;

=mulitline comment supported
my comment lines
out of the array
=cut

@option=(
      [ 1,2,
      sub{
        # few lines for
        # function process
        $base
        }],

=for
       [ undef, undef,
       sub{
        $next
        } ],
=cut

      [3,4],
     );

print Dumper @option;
[download]

Error

syntax error at data.pl line 17, near "="
Execution of data.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

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Re: Multi-line comment not supported with in an array by moritz (Cardinal) on Aug 13, 2010 at 06:16 UTC
From perlsyn: Perl has a mechanism for intermixing documentation with source code. While it’s expecting the beginning of a new statement, if the compiler encounters a line that begins with an equal sign and a word, like this `=head1 Here There Be Pods!` [download] Then that text and all remaining text up through and including a line beginning with "=cut" will be ignored. The format of the intervening text is described in perlpod. (Emphasis by me). POD is only allowed at statement boundaries. This is probably because it's very confusing to have a huge piece of text between the beginning and the end of a statement, and thus would make reading the code much harder. Perl 6 - links to (nearly) everything that is Perl 6.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Multi-line comment not supported with in an array by JavaFan (Canon) on Aug 13, 2010 at 08:36 UTC
POD != comments. Perl does support comments, and comments can be introduced almost anywhere where a new token is expected. However, the problem you have is with POD. The interpreter itself will only skip POD sections if it's expecting a new statement. Which is were your problem lies. On the flip side, I'm not aware of any POD parser that isn't naïve, and extracts POD from files where `perl` wouldn't. POD parsers typically just look for `/^=\w/`, ignoring context. (Really bad parsers look for `/^=/`).	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Multi-line comment not supported with in an array by jethro (Monsignor) on Aug 13, 2010 at 08:44 UTC
I assume you want to uncomment code without tediously adding '#' to each line. POD wasn't made for this. You should check your editor, many have macro abilities and macros can be used to add or remove '#' from a region of text automatically. Emacs and vi (and all descendants of vi) can do this, just to name a few examples	[reply]