Even in CGI scripts, you should use strict; and use warnings;. This could help you right off the bad.

Does this work if the contents of the variable are small? In other words, are you positive it is related the size of the variable and not something that you're doing incorrectly in the script? Just because it prints at the command line doesn't mean it'll come through when calling it through the web server.

I also noticed that $retHashRef{$viewItem[0]} = $viewStr; should be $retHashRef->{$viewItem[0]} = $viewStr; ... unless $viewItem is itself an anonymous array ref, which would mean you'd have to use $viewItem->[0].

We can't really help with out more code.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.