How do I read the contents of a small text file into a scalar in Perl?

Question

I have a small text file that I\'d like to read into a scalar variable exactly as it is in the file (preserving line separators and other whitespace).

The equivalent

Answer 1

You could do something like:

$data_file="somefile.txt";
open(DAT, $data_file);
@file_data = ;
close(DAT);

That'll give you the file contents in an array, that you can use for whatever you want, for example, if you wanted each individual line, you could do something like:

foreach $LINE (@file_data)
{
    dosomethingwithline($LINE);
}

For a full usage example:

my $result;
$data_file = "somefile.txt";
my $opened = open(DAT, $data_file);
if (!$opened)
{
    $result = "Error.";
}
else
{
    @lines = ;
    foreach $LINE (@lines)
    {
        $result .= $LINE;
    }
    close(DAT);
}

Then you can use $result however you need. Note: This code is untested, but it should give you an idea.