How should I use the “my” keyword in Perl?

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my restricts the scope of a variable. The scope of a variable is where it can be seen. Reducing a variable’s scope to where the variable is needed is a fundamental aspect of good programming. It makes the code more readable and less error-prone, and results in a slew of derived benefits.

If you don’t declare a variable using my, a global variable will be created instead. This is to be avoided. Using use strict; tells Perl you want to be prevented from implicitly creating global variables, which is why you should always use use strict; (and use warnings;) in your programs.

Related reading: Why use use strict; and use warnings;?

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