I've found the easiest way to ensure this is to define the format right after the write call - but it's not the most elegant way to do it.

Maybe it's something completely different .. not sure from what's there :)

Hope that helps a little ..
-- Foxcub

Foxcub is correct. It looks like it is a scope problem. If you were to enforce warnings ( perl -w ) then you would get an error allong the lines of

Use of uninitialized value in formline at ????.pl line ??.
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if you remove your line

my ($cust, $d1, $d2, $c1, $c2);
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from the function, or perhaps put it before you define your format that should give you your output :-)

_______________________________________________________
Remember that amateurs built Noah's Ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

foreach $key (sort keys %ytd ){ ... 

Seriously, i want to point out that anytime i see variables like $t1, $c1, ,$d1, etc., i try to remove these and use 'containers' instead. Here is my take on the problem:

use strict;

my (@stuff,$cust,$total);
my %ytd = (
   foo => { d1 => 1, d2 => 2, c1 => 3, c2 => 4 },
   bar => { d1 => 5, d2 => 6, c1 => 7, c2 => 8 },
   baz => { d1 => 9, d2 => 1, c1 => 2, c2 => 3 },
   qux => { d1 => 4, d2 => 5, c1 => 2, c2 => 4 },
);

foreach $cust (sort keys %ytd) {
   my @tot = map {
      $ytd{$cust}->{"d$_"} - $ytd{$cust}->{"c$_"}
   } 1..2;

   $total = do { my $t; $t += $_ for @tot; $t };
   @stuff = (
      $ytd{$cust}->{d1}, $ytd{$cust}->{c1}, $tot[0],
      $ytd{$cust}->{d2}, $ytd{$cust}->{c2}, $tot[1],
   );
   write;
}


format STDOUT =

@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
$cust
@#####.##  @#####.##  @#####.##     @#####.##  @#####.##  @#####.##
@stuff
                                            @#####.##
                                            $total
.
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Without knowing the problem, i can't really comment on your datastructure %ytd, but it might benefit you in terms of maintenance to combine each of the 'dN' and 'cN' pairs into one that contains an array. For example:

my %ytd = (
    foo => { d => [1,2], c => [3,4] },
    bar => { d => [5,6], c => [7,8] },
    baz => { d => [9,1], c => [2,3] },
    qux => { d => [4,5], c => [2,4] },
);
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jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

Ah yes, use strict is there, just not in the snippet I posted. Sort of like American Express, I don't code without it. : )

My data structure is two flat files with customer names and data. The names should match in both files, but I've got to get the data from the two files in to a structure indexed by customer name. The files generated and ascii is my best option.

I've got it working at present, but I agree the code is messy at best. I am quite intrigued by your array idea and will try that approach instead. Thanks!

There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling now.

1. Even within the same scope, you should not re-declare your variables. In the following code, $a is declared twice, first within the format statement, second time with my. Although $a is assigned to 1, don't expect the printing matches it, as that's a different $a. Remove the 'my' resolves the problem, as now it is a pure assignment, not a declaration any more.

   format SomeFormat = 
   @###.##     @>>>>>>>
   $a,         $b
   .
   my $a = 1;
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2. Although scope migth cause a problem, if one is careless, but I disagree with the thought that the write and format statement have to be in the same scope. Actually, as long as you fully qualify your variables, as you should always do, things would be fine, even if format and write reside in different scopes. The following code I wrote demos this:

   use strict;
   
   format Something =
           Test: @##.##  @###.##
                 $a,     $b
   .
   sayit();
   
   
   sub sayit {
       $main::a = 1;
       $main::b = 2;
       $~ = 'Something';
       write;
   }
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