In perl, can HEREIS notation be used inside hash initialization?

Question

I am trying to initialize a hash like this:

use strict;

my %hash =
(
    key => <<END;
abc
def
END
    ,
    another_key => 17
);

When I run perl -cw on this code, I get the error 'syntax error at hash-initialize-test.pl line 5, near ";"'.

Is there a way to use HEREIS notation (such as <<END;) within hash initialization? If not, why not?

There are several simple workarounds, but I like to use HEREIS notation for multi-line strings because it is elegant and avoids introducing unnecessary variables.

I tried choroba's solution and it worked. Previously, I had always used a semi-colon within HEREIS notation and had never terminated the end-quote with a comma, but it makes sense in this case because the key-value pair within the hash initialization ends with a comma. Thanks! — David Levner, Jan 04 '15 at 22:58
It is usually called a [**HEREDOC**](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=perldoc+heredoc). ( don't change the question as people searching for hereis need to be able to find the information too ) — Brad Gilbert, Jan 06 '15 at 06:29

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 04 '15 at 22:28

9

Remove the semicolon. There is no statement end.

my %hash = ( key => <<'END',
abc
def
END
             another_key => 17,
           );

answered Jan 04 '15 at 22:28

choroba

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In perl, can HEREIS notation be used inside hash initialization?

1 Answers1