Larry Sandwick wrote:
>
> 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|$d\n";
>
> }
>
> close FILE;
> close DATA;
>
> exit;
Hi Larry.
You need to use
my ($item, $ldesc, $page, $d) = unpack 'A10xA40xA6xA8', $the_line;
but I make the $ldesc field 28 characters long instead of the 40 you have
codede, so perhaps you need a format of 'A10xA28xA6xA8'?
The 'A' unpack format strips trailing spaces from the input string so you
don't need to adjust the $page value afterwards. One the other hand, if
you want the fields exactly as they are, spaces and all, then use a lower
case 'a' format instead.
I hope this helps,
Rob
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