my $fee="FEE" my $fi="FI" my $fo="FO" my @fum=qw / fee fi fo fum / #### use Data::Dumper; use warnings; open(DAT,"< datafile.txt") or die $!; while (my $line=){ chomp $line; eval $line; if ($@){ print $@; } } print Dumper($main::fee,$fi,$fo,@fum); #### perl loadData.pl Name "main::fum" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 15. Name "main::fo" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 15. Name "main::fi" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 15. Name "main::fee" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 15. $VAR1 = undef; $VAR2 = undef; $VAR3 = undef; #### [pberghol@cowdawg ext-files]$ perl loadData.pl Global symbol "$fi" requires explicit package name at loadData.pl line 16. Global symbol "$fo" requires explicit package name at loadData.pl line 16. Global symbol "@fum" requires explicit package name at loadData.pl line 16. Execution of loadData.pl aborted due to compilation errors. #### perl loadData.pl Name "main::fum" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 16. Name "main::fo" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 16. Name "main::fi" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 16. Name "main::fee" used only once: possible typo at loadData.pl line 16. $VAR1 = undef; $VAR2 = undef; $VAR3 = undef;