From the perl docs:
Quote:
A my() declares the listed variables to be local (lexically) to the enclosing block, file, or eval(). If more than one value is listed, the list must be placed in parentheses.
What that means is that you limit the scope that the variable is available. For instance if you do:
sub mysubroutine {
my $a = 5;
}
&mysubroutine();
print $a;
you won't get any output, because $a was declared with my() and is only valid within the contents of the subroutine mysubroutine. Declaring your variables with my() prevents lots of globals hanging around, possible sideeffects due to naming conflicts and countless other problems.
Hope that helps,
Alex
