Change global variable value in PERL subroutine

Question

I am new with PERL and i am having this use case

#global variable
my $global = "foo";
print $global . "\n";
#subroutine call
&change($global);
print $global . "\n";

Here is my subroutine

sub change { 
               change the value of global to "bar";
               return $global;
           }

And here is what i want in my output

foo
bar

I know it is basic but i really want to understand the proper way to do this in Perl.

my variables are, by definition, not global. At most, a my variable may have file scope. — tjd
– tjd, Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 13:14
In general it is bad practice to rely on and modify globals. Instead, pass parameters and return values. $variable = change($variable); is a much better coding style for most use cases. — Miller
– Miller, Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 18:53

perreal · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-15 11:54:46Z

2

Just assign to it:

sub change { 
   $global = 'bar';
}

and you don't need the & before the function name, change() is enough.

answered Apr 15, 2014 at 11:54

perreal

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