Writing code you don't understand two days later is a bad thing. Perhaps you need to comment the code more.

The goal in this case, though, is to learn how to modularize your code effectively. Most CGI programs I write use a dispatch table:

my $thing = $cgi->param('action');

my %actions = (
  login => [ \&login ],
  main => [ \&view_page, 'front' ],
  index => [ \&view_page, 'index' ],
  unknown => [ sub { die "unknown action '$thing'" } ],
);

my ($func,@args) = @{ $actions{$thing} or $actions{unknown} };

$func->(@args);
[download]

Basically, I set up a hash of function references (and their arguments). Then I call the function corresponding to the action.

Most of my code is broken down into functions in the case of main functionality and repeated functionality -- in other words, the main actions (logging in, viewing a page, searching) are in functions, and common tasks (reading a config file, saving data) are in functions as well.

japhy -- Perl and Regex Hacker

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.