I am confused on how to return a hash from a subroutine or if I can even return a hash... My subroutine defines a hash, populates it, and then returns it: 
  sub savePurpose
  ...    
  my %hTptPurpose; 
  ...
  return \%hTptPurpose;

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The calling code is:  my $hTableData = savePurpose($szXls);

One of the next things the Perl script tries after calling savePurpose is reference (what I'd like to be) the hash as:  my @aTable = keys %hTableData;

I'm doing something very wrong as the error I get is:  Global symbol "%hTableData" requires explicit package name at...
Can someone help me understand what I am doing wrong with this, keeping in mind that ideally I want to have a hash returned from savePurpose?

Thanks,
Ken

In reply to Returning a hash? by ken2

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