Thanks for the response. I will post the hash and the main part of the code that calls the subroutine. Sorry, should have done this in the first place.

$x = ();
%userpass = ('john','ball','tim','super','matt','password','dan','nad3
+2');

&entersys;
        if($x == "pass")
        {
            print("Welcome to the system!\n");
        }
        else
        {
            print("That user/password is incorrect\n");
        }
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I use them as global variables and a global hash so that the subroutines permanently change them.

Use string comparison operator (eq) instead of numeric (==).

if($x eq "pass")
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Equality Operators

I use them as global variables and a global hash so that the subroutines permanently change them.

Don't do that. It's called action at a distance and it's considered a bad practice. Instead of modifying a global variable, you should return a value from entersys().

(The error regarding the check for numerical vs. string equality has been pointed out and was not contained in your original post, so I ignore it in my response.)

I believe you are encountering a variable scoping issue. Make sure your hash contents are visible to the subroutine (which they aren't unless you assign the correct global scope to the hash variable). The following declaration of the hash inside a naked block will throw an error as the hash is unknown to the subroutine.


#! /usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
{
    our %hash;
    $hash{ 1 } = "OK";

    &routine;
}

sub routine
{
    print $hash{ 1 };
}
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Hope this helps.
Pat