--- "Tirthankar C.P" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Folks, I have a file like this:
>
> Asea Brown Boveri Ltd.
> 02-Aug-1999 | 02-Aug-1999 | 399.05
> 03-Aug-1999 | 03-Aug-1999 | 395.00
> 04-Aug-1999 | 04-Aug-1999 | 426.5
> 06-Aug-1999 | 06-Aug-1999 | 406.00
> 31-Jul-2000 | 31-Jul-2000 | 203.00
> 01-Aug-2000 | 01-Aug-2000 | 203.65
> | Overall | 399.05 | 203.65
> Asian Paints (India) Ltd.
> 02-Aug-1999 | 02-Aug-1999 |
> 03-Aug-1999 | 03-Aug-1999 |
> 28-Jul-2000 | 28-Jul-2000 |
> 31-Jul-2000 | 31-Jul-2000 |
> 01-Aug-2000 | 01-Aug-2000 |
> | Overall | 196.88 | 280.70
> Associated Cement Cos. Ltd.
> 02-Aug-1999 | 02-Aug-1999 | 196.10 |
> 03-Aug-1999 | 03-Aug-1999 | 211.75 |
> 04-Aug-1999 | 04-Aug-1999 | 224.80 |
> 10-Aug-1999 | 10-Aug-1999 | 231.10 |
>
> I would like to break up this file into three parts, based on the
> company name, i.e., so that the data following the stock name
> (till the next stock), comes in that file. Any ideas?
Hmm....
my $dat; # just making memory space for the file
open IN, $file or die $!; # assuming $file already has the name
{ local $/ = undef; # $/ is the input record seperator
$dat = <IN>; # slurp it all in at once
} # close the local() scope to restore $/
my @sections = split /\n(?=[a-z])/i, $dat; # see below
Notes:
1) I've never done this. It may not work. (lol)
2) If it does work, this will leave every section but the last one
without it's trailing newline. (just FYI)
Explanation:
my @sections = split /\n(?=[a-z])/i, $dat;
Obviously, the my() creates @sections, which will hold each section of
the file in a seperate cell (with which you may then do as you please).
split() is going to break $dat into the pieces that you want, based on
the pattern.
/\n(?=[a-z])/i means "find every newline followed by an alphabetic
character". (?=$pat) is a zero-width lookahead, so that only newlines
followed by letters count. If that's not exactly the effect you want,
you could easily edit the pattern. =o)
This is assuming the structure of the file is pretty uniformly
consistent with the example you gave.
Good luck,
Paul
=====
print "Just another Perl Hacker\n"; # edited for readability =o)
=============================================================
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The opposite of a trival truth is obviously false.
The opposite of a great Truth is also true." -- Neils Bohr
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