How do I include functions from another file in my Perl script?

Question

This seems like a really simple question but somehow my Google-Fu failed me.

What's the syntax for including functions from other files in Perl? I'm looking for something like C's #include "blah.h"

I saw the option for using Perl modules, but that seems like it'll require a not-insignificant rewrite of my current code.

Answer 1

Use a module. Check out perldoc perlmod and Exporter.

In file Foo.pm

package Foo;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter;

our @ISA= qw( Exporter );

# these CAN be exported.
our @EXPORT_OK = qw( export_me export_me_too );

# these are exported by default.
our @EXPORT = qw( export_me );

sub export_me {
    # stuff
}

sub export_me_too {
    # stuff
}

1;

In your main program:

use strict;
use warnings;

use Foo;  # import default list of items.

export_me( 1 );

Or to get both functions:

use strict;
use warnings;

use Foo qw( export_me export_me_too );  # import listed items

export_me( 1 );
export_me_too( 1 );

You can also import package variables, but the practice is strongly discouraged.