declaring a hash table in one file and using it in another in Perl

Question

I need to create a hash table in one file and use in in another. The reason for it is that that the table is my "database" and will be changed, and I want it to seat with all the other data files, and not with the script files.

How can I use the table in my script?

Answer 1

Define your hashtable in a global or package variable. Then use the do command to load the definition into another script:

 datafiles/database.def
 ---------------------------
 package ProjectData;
 our %DATA = ('abc' => 'def', 'ghi' => 'jkl', ...);


 scripts/myscript.pl
 ------------------------
 use strict;
 do 'datafiles/database.def';
 ... do something with %ProjectData::DATA ...