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Hi,

I am reading from a spreadsheet using Spreadsheet::BasicRead, I have
got a big list of variables using saying which header is in which
column. I want to store these in another file.

How do I do this?

e.g.
require "constants.pl";

use spreadsheet_constrants;

Which one is better practice?

I tried the 2nd option, however I got the error "variable xxx is not
imported". Why? What does it mean? What's the usual cause?

Regards,

BH

Quoth BH <>:
>
> I am reading from a spreadsheet using Spreadsheet::BasicRead, I have
> got a big list of variables using saying which header is in which
> column. I want to store these in another file.
>
> How do I do this?
>
> e.g.
> require "constants.pl";
>
> use spreadsheet_constrants;
>
> Which one is better practice?

The second. However, you may find it more awkward if you really want a
big list of variables to import. A better option would be to put these
constants into a single hash, instead, and then import that; a third
would be to use the 'constant' module to define proper named constants.

> I tried the 2nd option, however I got the error "variable xxx is not
> imported". Why? What does it mean? What's the usual cause?

You need to read perldoc perlmod, and then probably perldoc Exporter.
Post again if you don't understand those two documents.

Ben

Thanks a lot.

On Feb 26, 3:47*pm, Ben Morrow <b...@morrow.me.uk> wrote:
> Quoth BH <Benson....@googlemail.com>:
>
>
>
> > I am reading from a spreadsheet using Spreadsheet::BasicRead, I have
> > got a big list of variables using saying which header is in which
> > column. I want to store these in another file.
>
> > How do I do this?
>
> > e.g.
> > require "constants.pl";
>
> > use spreadsheet_constrants;
>
> > Which one is better practice?
>
> The second. However, you may find it more awkward if you really want a
> big list of variables to import. A better option would be to put these
> constants into a single hash, instead, and then import that; a third
> would be to use the 'constant' module to define proper named constants.
>
> > I tried the 2nd option, however I got the error "variable xxx is not
> > imported". Why? What does it mean? What's the usual cause?
>
> You need to read perldoc perlmod, and then probably perldoc Exporter.
> Post again if you don't understand those two documents.
>
> Ben

On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:47:38 +0000 Ben Morrow <> wrote:

BM> Quoth BH <>:
>>
>> I am reading from a spreadsheet using Spreadsheet::BasicRead, I have
>> got a big list of variables using saying which header is in which
>> column. I want to store these in another file.
>>
>> How do I do this?
>>
>> e.g.
>> require "constants.pl";
>>
>> use spreadsheet_constrants;
>>
>> Which one is better practice?

BM> The second. However, you may find it more awkward if you really want a
BM> big list of variables to import. A better option would be to put these
BM> constants into a single hash, instead, and then import that; a third
BM> would be to use the 'constant' module to define proper named constants.

The OP could put all that data in a file (YAML, XML, CSV, etc). It
would be faster on load too, if the list is big. I can't tell the OP
what format to use since I don't know how the header name and the column
name are defined, but probably even something as simple as

1 name
2 address
3 zip code

in a plain text file would work, to be processed with

split " ", $line, 2;

I've said it before and I'll say it again, storing pure data in code is
a bad idea, especially if the data structure is simple.

Ted