I have no doubt that this will work. But I'm looking for a way to hide the ugly details from the calling code.

Perhaps (looking at your suggestion and making this up as I go...)

sub my_sub {
   # do stuff
   eval { potential icky bit };
   if ($@) {
      return 0;
   } else {
      return $something_useful;
   }
}

# MAIN

unless ( $result = my_sub() ) {
   # use $@ to figure out what to do
}
[download]

Well and good. But what if the problem arises from the logic of my task and not from an eval-able error. Bad data for example.

I'm willing to hid any ugliness in the sub. But how do I best set a retreavable value of my own chosing to flag the problem and still allow succinct, clean code where the sub is called:

unless ( $result = my_sub() ) {
   # handle error condition based on error var
}
[download]

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