Get the $main value when use local

[gopalr]

Dear Monks

$a='main';

if (1)
{
    local $a='sub';
    print "\n$a";
    print "\n$main::a";
}

print "\n$a";

OUTPUT:

sub
sub
main

Needed OUTPUT:

sub
main
main

But, When I use my instead of local, I get the correct output.

How can i get the main value when use local.

Thanks

[polettix]

The goal of local is exactly that of not allowing you to do that. According to the relevant docs:

This operator works by saving the current values of those variables in its argument list on a hidden stack and restoring them upon exiting the block, subroutine, or eval. This means that called subroutines can also reference the local variable, but not the global one.

Even if you succeed in touching the hidden stack, this is something you shouldn't really rely on for anything serious.

[blazar]

AFAIK, you can't. That's the whole point about local. Any good reason why you need to use local instead of my? You may try giving a peek into Coping with Scoping and Seven Useful Uses of local for insightful info.

As a side note, read perldoc perlvar to find out why as a general rule $a should not be used as a general purpose variable.

Update: all in all your test code may have been written like thus:

#!/usr/bin/perl -l

$c='main';

{
        local $c='sub';
        print $c;
        print $main::c;
}

print $c;

__END__

[jbrugger]

You can't:
local and my are different
local does not work the same way as my. In particular, it doesn't create private variables. Variables declared local remain global. Instead, Perl assigns a temporary value to the variable, and then restores the old value when the variable goes out of scope.

[Joost]

local and my are just completely different things. local $something in the main package creates a temporary replacement for the global $main::something. my $something creates a lexical variable with the same name as $something - but $main::something always refers to the global, since lexicals are independent of package.

I would recommend you just use lexicals. The cases where you want to use local() are very limited (generally, local is used for temporarily overriding special globals like $/, $_ etc).

If you really need to use globals, just do this:

$a='main';

if (1)
{
    my $olda = $a
    local $a = 'sub';
    print "$a\n";
    print "$olda\n";
}

print "$a\n";