long answer: Variable Scoping in Perl: the basics

short answer:
minimalistic example to set a value inside a conditional / loop / block:
(I intentionally used the variable '$value' inside the block to demonstrate 'my'. It is not mandatory, you can also assign directly.)
my $variable; if (1 == 1) { my $value = 'a'; $variable = $value; } else { my $value = 'b'; $variable = $value; } # => '$variable' now contains 'a'

In reply to Re^3: Uninitialized value from hostname() by Monk::Thomas
in thread Uninitialized value from hostname() by eepstein

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