How do you test code that uses my vs our vs local?

In Perl, variable scoping is a crucial aspect of writing maintainable and bug-free code. Understanding the differences between my, our, and local can help developers manage variable visibility effectively.

Understanding my, our, and local

my defines a variable that is scoped to the current block. It cannot be accessed outside its declaring block. our, on the other hand, declares a package variable that can be seen across the entire package, allowing for shared state. Finally, local temporarily backs up the value of a global variable, allowing the original value to be restored once out of scope.

Example Usage

# Example demonstrating my, our, and local { my $local_var = "I'm local"; # scoped to this block print "$local_var\n"; } print "$local_var\n"; # This will cause an error, as $local_var is not accessible here. our $global_var = "I'm global"; # scoped to the package print "$global_var\n"; sub example { local $global_var = "I'm temporarily local"; # This will override the global variable print "$global_var\n"; # Outputs: I'm temporarily local } example(); # Calls the function print "$global_var\n"; # Outputs: I'm global, as the local change has ended in example()

my our local Perl variable scopes programming