Replacing a field separator during a read.

Replacing a field separator during a read.

I want to replace a pipe symbol (|) field seperator with a tab when I print the contents of records in a file. This is my text file:Jeremiah Stein|LW89W|1|U
Patty Smith|JJ12R|2|W
The cgi script I wrote will read it and print it out with the | between field. How can I replace the | with a tab? This is my script. It can be called up from a link or in the browser's window: http://localhost/cgi-bin/cvtc/c05ex4b.cgi

#!/usr/bin/perl
#c05ex4b.cgi - reads data from a text file and creates a dynamic Web page
# that prints registered information
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
use CGI qw(:standard -debug);
use strict;
 
#declare variables
my ($name, $serial, $modnum, $sysletter, @records, $rec);
 
#Read Records
open(INFILE, "<", "c05ex4.txt")
or die "Error opening c05ex4.txt. $!, stopped";
@records = <INFILE>;
close(INFILE);
foreach my $rec (@records) {
chomp($rec);
($name, $serial, $modnum, $sysletter) = split(/\|/, $rec);
}
 
#create Web page
print "<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Juniper Printer Registrations</TITLE></HEAD>\n";
print "<BODY><H2>\n";
print "<B>View Registration File</B></h2>\n";
print "The Following Printers have been registratered. \n";
 
foreach my $rec(@records) {
print "$rec\n";
}
print "</BODY></HTML>\n";

I am learning from a text book and it is not covered.

NevadaSam

Newbie Poster

5 posts since Apr 2006

Reputation Points: 10

Solved Threads: 0

6 Years Ago

0

Look up the substitution operator. s//.

You can replace the data like so:

$myvar = "hello|world|yes!";
$myvar =~ s/|/\t/gi;
print "$myvar";

Comatose

Taboo Programmer

Team Colleague

2,910 posts since Dec 2004

Reputation Points: 361

Solved Threads: 215

6 Years Ago

0

Thanks for the reply. I have it working now. That is some good information to know as I go along.

NevadaSam

Newbie Poster

5 posts since Apr 2006

Reputation Points: 10

Solved Threads: 0

6 Years Ago

0

Cool, do me a favor and up at the top, mark the thread as solved.

Comatose

Taboo Programmer

Team Colleague

2,910 posts since Dec 2004

Reputation Points: 361

Solved Threads: 215

6 Years Ago

0

Look up the substitution operator. s//.

You can replace the data like so:
$myvar = "hello|world|yes!";
$myvar =~ s/|/\t/gi;
print "$myvar";

I'm wondering if you or the OP ran the code you suggested, I think you will find the results not what is expected if the code is left as-is.

Usually you don't want to do a substitution on field delimiters but I guess you could if you wanted to. You split the string on the delimiters then munge the data, I had already suggested using join for this (on another forum):

print join("\t",split(/\|/,$var));

Nit-pik: There is also no need to use the "i" option to substitute non alpha characters as there is no case involved.

KevinADC

Posting Shark

921 posts since Mar 2006

Reputation Points: 246

Solved Threads: 67

6 Years Ago

0

Your absolutely right... I didn't test the code, I went off memory. So, You would need to escape the piping symbol as such:

$myvar = "hello|world|yes!";
$myvar =~ s/\|/\t/gi;
print "$myvar";

And as for the regex optional modifier's Whoopie Do. You can add it or leave it, I don't think it really matters. I think you'll find regex to be faster in operation (not that it would be noticable on small amounts of data) than nested splits and joins, but I guess it boils down to style.

Comatose

Taboo Programmer

Team Colleague

2,910 posts since Dec 2004

Reputation Points: 361

Solved Threads: 215

1 Year Ago

0

perl -pi.int -e 's/\|/,/g;' fileName.ext

But I am getting

'/' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Any idea?

symfar

Newbie Poster

1 post since Dec 2010

Reputation Points: 10

Solved Threads: 0

1 Year Ago

0

Instead of perl -pi.int -e 's/\|/,/g;' fileName.ext try using double quotes instead of the single quotes. perl -pi.int -e "s/\|/,/g;" fileName.ext http://stackoverflow.com/questions/660624/why-doesnt-my-perl-one-liner-work-on-windows

d5e5

Practically a Posting Shark

810 posts since Sep 2009

Reputation Points: 159

Solved Threads: 159

Replacing a field separator during a read.

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