note Anonymous Monk Helpful use: in this example i wanted to open an in-memory file so i could make use of Perl's: format & write operations. This will print a formatted line into a "in mem" file and return it as a scalar string to the calling function. It was a easy way of making a formatted (aligned) toString() for my class. Enjoy. <p> <code> sub toString { my $self = shift; my $thishash = $self->{_listofkeys}; my $memfile; open (FORMATTED_OUT, '>',\$memfile) || warn "unable to open memory file!"; format FORMATTED_OUT = IMEI BrandName Model OS Registered To ========================================================================================================== @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< $thishash->{IMEI}, $thishash->{PhoneBrandName}, $thishash->{PhoneModel}, $thishash->{PhoneOS}, $thishash->{RegisteredTo} . write FORMATTED_OUT ; close (FORMATTED_OUT); return $memfile; } </code> 302088 302088 1