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Analysing text files to obtain statistics on their content Using Perl

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Join Date: May 2009

Posts: 3

Reputation: Akase is an unknown quantity at this point

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Akase

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Analysing text files to obtain statistics on their content Using Perl

Jun 12th, 2009

Hi
I'm new to Perl language and I have this assignment which is killing me, CAN SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE. Below is the question:

You are to write a Perl program that analyses text files to obtain statistics on their content. The program should operate as follows:

1) When run, the program should check if an argument has been provided. If not, the program should prompt for, and accept input of, a filename from the keyboard.

2) The filename, either passed as an argument or input from the keyboard, should be checked to ensure it is in MS-DOS format. The filename part should be no longer than 8 characters and must begin with a letter or underscore character followed by up to 7 letters, digits or underscore characters. The file extension should be optional, but if given is should be ".TXT" (upper- or lowercase).

If no extension if given, ".TXT" should be added to the end of the filename. So, for example, if "testfile" is input as the filename, this should become "testfile.TXT". If "input.txt" is entered, this should remain unchanged.

3) If the filename provided is not of the correct format, the program should display a suitable error message and end at this point.

4) The program should then check to see if the file exists using the filename provided. If the file does not exist, a suitable error message should be displayed and the program should end at this point.

5) Next, if the file exists but the file is empty, again a suitable error message should be displayed and the program should end.

6) The file should be read and checked to display crude statistics on the number of characters, words, lines, sentences and paragraphs that are within the file.

I HAVE MANAGE TO WRITE THE FOLLOWING BUT ANY TIME I EXECUTE IT I GET THE ff: Global symbol "filename" requires explicit package name form C: directory.

Below is my code, can anyone check and find out what is wrong, please:

 Help with Code Tags 
 perl Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
#!/usr/bin/perl 
 
use strict; 
use warnings; 
 
if ($#ARGV == -1) #no filename provided as a command line argument. 
{ 
print("Please enter a filename: "); 
$filename = <STDIN>; 
chomp($filename); 
} 
else  
{ 
$filename = $ARGV[0]; 
} 
 
if ($filename !~ m/^[a-z]{1,7}\.TXT$/i) 
{ 
die("File format not valid\n"); 
} 
 
if ($filename !~ m/\.TXT$/i) 
{ 
$filename .= ".TXT"; 
} 
 
if (-e $filename) 
{ 
die("File does not exist\n"); 
} 
 
if (-s $filename) 
{ 
die("File is empty\n"); 
} 
 
my $i = 0; 
my $p = 1; 
my $words = 0; 
my $chars = 0; 
 
open(READFILE, "<$data.txt") or die "Can't open file '$filename: $!"; 
 
while (<READFILE>) { 
chomp;  
$i = $.; #"$". is the input record line numbers, $i++ will also work 
$p++ if (m/^$/); #count paragraphs 
$my @t = split (/\s+/); #split sentences into "words" 
$words ++;= @t; #add count to $words 
$chars += tr/ //c; #tr/ //c count all characters except spaces and add to $chars 
} 
 
print "There are $i lines in $data\n"; 
print "There are $p Paragraphs in $data\n"; 
print "There are $words in $data\n"; 
print "There are $chars in $data \n"; 
 
close(READFILE);
#!/usr/bin/perl 

use strict; 
use warnings; 

if ($#ARGV == -1) #no filename provided as a command line argument. 
{ 
print("Please enter a filename: "); 
$filename = <STDIN>; 
chomp($filename); 
} 
else  
{ 
$filename = $ARGV[0]; 
} 
 
if ($filename !~ m/^[a-z]{1,7}\.TXT$/i) 
{ 
die("File format not valid\n"); 
} 

if ($filename !~ m/\.TXT$/i) 
{ 
$filename .= ".TXT"; 
} 
 
if (-e $filename) 
{ 
die("File does not exist\n"); 
} 
 
if (-s $filename) 
{ 
die("File is empty\n"); 
} 

my $i = 0; 
my $p = 1; 
my $words = 0; 
my $chars = 0; 

open(READFILE, "<$data.txt") or die "Can't open file '$filename: $!"; 

while (<READFILE>) { 
chomp;  
$i = $.; #"$". is the input record line numbers, $i++ will also work 
$p++ if (m/^$/); #count paragraphs 
$my @t = split (/\s+/); #split sentences into "words" 
$words ++;= @t; #add count to $words 
$chars += tr/ //c; #tr/ //c count all characters except spaces and add to $chars 
} 
 
print "There are $i lines in $data\n"; 
print "There are $p Paragraphs in $data\n"; 
print "There are $words in $data\n"; 
print "There are $chars in $data \n"; 

close(READFILE);

Last edited by Narue; Jun 12th, 2009 at 3:55 pm. Reason: added code tags

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Join Date: Feb 2009

Posts: 57

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mitchems

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Junior Poster in Training

Re: Analysing text files to obtain statistics on their content Using Perl

Jun 12th, 2009

I am surprised that you got this program to run at all.

 Help with Code Tags 
 Perl Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
$my @t = split (/\s+/); #split sentences into "words"
$words ++;= @t; #add count to $words
$my @t = split (/\s+/); #split sentences into "words"
$words ++;= @t; #add count to $words

These two lines contain syntax errors.

The reason your program will not run (and you're getting the error that you're getting) is because you are using strict, but not programming in a strict fashion. You're not declaring the scope of the variable filename, which is why it is bombing. If you take strict out, you will see that you have some fairly straight forward syntax errors in your code. Take out strict and fix the basic errors. That will probably fix the code, although I'd probably take a completely different approach to this problem. I just don't have time to rewrite the entire program.

And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and space, because that's exactly how much difference there is.

Larry Wall

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Join Date: Mar 2006

Posts: 898

Reputation: KevinADC has a spectacular aura about

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KevinADC

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Practically a Posting Shark

Re: Analysing text files to obtain statistics on their content Using Perl

Jun 12th, 2009

Akase...

You insult everyone helping on this forum by posting your plagarized code and making it appear as if you wrote it.

http://www.programmersheaven.com/mb/...=B20000#392147

Last edited by KevinADC; Jun 12th, 2009 at 3:46 pm.

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Join Date: Mar 2006

Posts: 898

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KevinADC

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Re: Analysing text files to obtain statistics on their content Using Perl

Jun 13th, 2009

•

Originally Posted by mitchems

I am surprised that you got this program to run at all.

Considering they did not write it, and probably never even ran it, your surprise should be alleviated.

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Join Date: May 2009

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Akase

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Newbie Poster

Re: Analysing text files to obtain statistics on their content Using Perl

Jun 13th, 2009

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Originally Posted by mitchems

I am surprised that you got this program to run at all.
Help with Code Tags

Perl Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
$my @t = split (/\s+/); #split sentences into "words"
$words ++;= @t; #add count to $words
$my @t = split (/\s+/); #split sentences into "words" $words ++;= @t; #add count to $words
These two lines contain syntax errors.

The reason your program will not run (and you're getting the error that you're getting) is because you are using strict, but not programming in a strict fashion. You're not declaring the scope of the variable filename, which is why it is bombing. If you take strict out, you will see that you have some fairly straight forward syntax errors in your code. Take out strict and fix the basic errors. That will probably fix the code, although I'd probably take a completely different approach to this problem. I just don't have time to rewrite the entire program.

Hi!,
As I said earlier on I am new to Perl, I wrote the code by reading thru other peoples work and my course book. In fact I do not understand most of the syntax myself that is why I have put it online for help. I'll would be grateful if people could comment and make corrections line by line so that I can follow the steps. But it seems all the comments is so far had not helped me to add any new thin to my code. I really need help please!