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Author FAQ 4.36 How can I expand variables in text strings?
PerlFAQ Server

2005-07-27, 9:03 am

This message is one of several periodic postings to comp.lang.perl.misc
intended to make it easier for perl programmers to find answers to
common questions. The core of this message represents an excerpt
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--------------------------------------------------------------------

4.36: How can I expand variables in text strings?

Let's assume that you have a string that contains placeholder variables.

$text = 'this has a $foo in it and a $bar';

You can use a substitution with a double evaluation. The first /e turns
$1 into $foo, and the second /e turns $foo into its value. You may want
to wrap this in an "eval": if you try to get the value of an undeclared
variable while running under "use strict", you get a fatal error.

eval { $text =~ s/(\$\w+)/$1/eeg };
die if $@;

It's probably better in the general case to treat those variables as
entries in some special hash. For example:

%user_defs = (
foo => 23,
bar => 19,
);
$text =~ s/\$(\w+)/$user_defs{$1}/g;



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