If you open a file in a block, Perl will close it automatically when the scope of the block finishes:

use warnings;
use strict;

{
    open my $fh, '<', 'a.txt' or die $!;

    # do stuff with file handle
}   

# file handle is closed here
# in fact, the $fh isn't even accessible here at all

[download]

The block can be a bare block like I've shown, or it could be within a function, loop etc. Essentially, all file handles within any scope will automatically close themselves when the scope they're in finishes. If it's in file scope, it'll close itself when the program exits.

In reply to Re: Automatically exiting a file within a block by stevieb
in thread Automatically exiting a file within a block by betmatt

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.