categorized question QandAEditors I'm working on an object that is complex enough (using XML::Parser to initialize the object) that I broke the initialization into a separate function from the constructor. I've put the initialization function into a block with some package variables and private functions something like this: <pre> sub new { my $self = {}; bless $self, shift; $self->_init(); return $self; } { my(%registry,%regattrs) ... sub _parseStart sub _parseEnd ... sub _init() { $self = shift; parse file.... $self = { 'modules' => { %registry }, 'site' => $regattrs{site} }; } } </pre> The problem is that upon returning from init back in the constructor, $self doesn't seem to be referring to anything anymore, even though i know it's been assigned properly (tested to see if the content was there before exiting _init - it was). Am i having scoping issues? This isn't the first time I've done something like this, but I had no difficulties last time. Thanks much, Stephen 1838 3