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POIn Perl, is it better to use a module than to require a file?
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copied!<p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2178871/is-there-anything-wrong-with-using-requires-after-output-starts-printing">Another question</a> got me thinking about different methods of code reuse: <code>use</code> vs. <code>require</code> vs. <code>do</code></p> <p>I see a lot of posts here where the question centers around the use of <code>require</code> to load and execute code. This seems to me to be an obvious bad practice, but I haven't found any good resources on the issue that I can point people to.</p> <p><a href="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlfaq8.html#What%27s-the-difference-between-require-and-use?" rel="noreferrer">perlfaq8</a> covers the difference between <code>use</code> and <code>require</code>, but it doesn't offer any advice in regard to preference (as of 5.10--in <a href="http://perldoc.perl.org/5.8.8/perlfaq8.html#What%27s-the-difference-between-require-and-use?" rel="noreferrer">5.8.8 there is a quick bit of advice in favor of use</a>).</p> <p>This topic seems to suffer from a lack of discussion. I have a few questions I'd like to see discussed:</p> <ol> <li>What is the preferred method of code reuse in Perl? <ul> <li><code>use ModuleName;</code></li> <li><code>require ModuleName;</code></li> <li><code>require 'file.pl';</code></li> <li><code>do 'file.pl';</code></li> </ul></li> <li>What is the difference between <code>require ModuleName</code> and <code>require "file.pl"</code>?</li> <li>Is it ever a good idea to use <code>require "file.pl"</code>? Why or why not?</li> </ol>

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