using substr... is this efficient

[Larry Sandwick]

I have a scripted I wrote that uses *substr* on a file that has fixed
fields. I have to parse the file before I upload into MYSQL.

 

Is there a more efficient way other than *substr*, I looked a *pack* and
*unpack* . it did not make any sense to me.

 

Here is my code, and any suggestions, comments would be appreciated!!!

#-----------------------------------------------

 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# Sample input file

#       304 THE CASTLE TWO DRAWER CHEST  6-168  02/18/04

#       751 FRUIT STILL LIFE PLANTER     6-22   02/18/04

#      1029 GLASS TOP: 24" DIA X 1/2"    ----   02/18/04

 

$pvr = 'DISCSL.txt';

$out = 'DISCSL_out.txt';

 

open FILE, "<$pvr" or die "Unabel to open the file\n";

open DATA, ">$out" or die "Unabel to open the file\n";

      

while(<FILE>)

      {

      $the_line = $_;

      chomp($the_line);

 

            $item     = substr($the_line,0,10); 

            $ldesc    = substr($the_line,11,40);      

            $page     = substr($the_line,52,6); 

            $d        = substr($the_line,59,8); 

 

      # Remove  all spaces we do not need !!!

      $item =~ s/\s+// ;

      $page =~ s/\s+// ;

 

       if ( $page eq "----" ) { $page = "" };

      print DATA "$item|$ldesc|$page|$d\n";

 

}

 

close FILE;

close DATA;

 

exit;

 

Larry Sandwick

Sarreid, Ltd.

Network/System Administrator

phone: (252) 291-1414 x223

fax      : (252) 237-1592