Encapsulation without classes

Looking for methods of having encapsulation without using classes. Eg, with classes you can have variables that are shared between methods and are specific to that class, but not using classes means using plain functions and global variables. Plain functions are fine, but not so keen on global vars. One method I thought of was to use an associative array with the keys of the array being the "variables". Any ideas? TIA -- Richard Heyes http://www.heyes-computing.net/scripts/