Help on variable declaration with "use strict "

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

Hey there, I have a minor problem with my code, I am trying to write this code with "use strict" but it is throwing error.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper

my %count;

open FILE, "test.log";

while (<FILE>){
    my @fields = split;
    $count{$fields[1]}++;
}

print Dumper \%count;
[download]

I feel I am doing right, but perl doesn't quite agree. I am getting the error

Global symbol "%count" requires explicit package name at test.pl line 
+11.
Global symbol "%count" requires explicit package name at test.pl line 
+14.
Execution of test.pl aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

What is wrong with my variable declaration? Of course it works with "use strict" commented, but the fact that it is throwing error means I am doing something wrong. Can someone correct me please?

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Re: Help on variable declaration with "use strict " by thezip (Vicar) on Jun 01, 2011 at 16:22 UTC
You are missing a semi-colon in line 3, ie. `use Data::Dumper;` What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof. - Christopher Hitchens	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Help on variable declaration with "use strict " by toolic (Bishop) on Jun 01, 2011 at 16:23 UTC
use Data::Dumper Add a semicolon: `use Data::Dumper;` [download] B::Deparse can help to get a little more information (Tip #6 from Basic debugging checklist): `$ perl -MO=Deparse test.pl Global symbol "%count" requires explicit package name at test.pl line +11. Global symbol "%count" requires explicit package name at test.pl line +14. test.pl had compilation errors. use Data::Dumper (my %count); use warnings; use strict 'refs'; open FILE, 'test.log'; while (defined($_ = <FILE>)) { my(@fields) = split(' ', $_, 0); 'count'->{$fields[1]}++; } print Dumper(\(%{'count'}));` [download] Here it shows that `my %count` looks like it's being passed to Data::Dumper.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Help on variable declaration with "use strict " by Anonymous Monk on Jun 01, 2011 at 17:03 UTC
Thanks! That was very helpful! The Deparse module looks great for beginners like me.	[reply]
Re: Help on variable declaration with "use strict " by Anonymous Monk on Jun 01, 2011 at 16:30 UTC
damn.. that is right! Since I am a newbie I have little confidence in my understanding of the concepts. So it made me suspect the declaration instead of checking the syntax. Apologies.	[reply]
Re^2: Help on variable declaration with "use strict " by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 01, 2011 at 16:52 UTC
It was hard to spot. The reason it's a strict error is that `use Data::Dumper my %count;` [download] is the same as `BEGIN { require Data::Dumper; import Data::Dumper my %count; }` [download] The curlies of the implicit `BEGIN` limited the scope of the lexical.	[reply] [d/l] [select]