Question

Basically, I’m trying to call a package function using only variables/scalars but I can’t figure out why I’m getting “ERROR: Incorrect argument in parentheses”.

Here’s the sample pm:

package foo;

sub bar {

    my $request = @_[0];

    if ($request eq 'fubar') {

        my $response = 'definitely';
        return $response;

    else {

        my $response = 'definitely not';
        return $response;

    }

}

1;

And the sample pl

use strict;
use lib "/blah/blah/custom_modules";
use sample;

my $package = 'foo';
my $package_sub = 'bar';
my $package_sub_args = 'fubar';     
my $response = $package->$package_sub("$package_args");
print "$response\n";

And then I get the error.

Using any variations of the following will work however:

my $response = foo::bar('fubar');
my $response = foo::bar($package_sub_args);

But I believe that I cannot use variables in the type of OO notation above and must use the -> notation.

Anyway, help very much appreciated.

CLARIFICATION – The issue I’m having is with not knowing the package, sub or arguments until runtime. I can make it work when the sub doesn’t require arguments. But I have several subs that do require arguments and that’s where I’m stumbling…

Answer 1

This is simpler:

my $package_sub_ref = \&{ $package . '::' . $package_sub };
my $response = $package_sub_ref->($package_sub_arg);

Works with strict.