SPUG: a split question . . .

[Patterson, David S (David)]

[ Comment from the Peanut Gallery ]

This is a really cool trick!  I can't believe I've never seen it before
now...  I had to go back to the blue camel book (Programming Perl, Wall &
Schwartz) and find it before I could believe it.  It's actually documented
on pg 48, but in a rather academic way--the example never mentions the
beauty of using it in something like split.  It just proves that you can
never completely "learn" a language.  People are always finding new ways to
use the tools in any toolbox...

		"(A)bort  (R)etry  (T)ake down entire network?"

> 	David Patterson
> 	Software Engineer
> 	Lucent Technologies *
> 	6464 185th Ave NE
> 	Redmond, WA  98052-6736
> 	425-558-8008 x 2172
		888-501-4835 Pgr
> 	davidpa at lucent.com
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Greg Mushen [SMTP:greg.mushen at gettyimages.com]
> Sent:	Monday, February 21, 2000 8:05 PM
> To:	'Matthew Lasar'; spug-list at pm.org
> Subject:	RE: SPUG: a split question . . . 
> 
> The [1,2] piece of the script tells the split function which values to put
> into the variables you've specified.  For example, if you have a text file
> with these entries:
> 
> [0]	     [1]	[2]
> 
> 02/21/00	1	greg.mushen at gettyimages.com
> 02/21/00	2	spug-list at pm.org
> 02/21/00	3	foo at bar.com
> 
> ($number, $email) = (split(/\s+/, $_))[1,2];
> 
> would return:
> 1	greg.mushen at gettyimages.com
> 2	spug-list at pm.org
> 3	foo at bar.com
> 
> Instead, if you entered [0,2], it would return:
> 02/21/00	greg.mushen at gettyimages.com
> 02/21/00	spug-list at pm.org
> 02/21/00	foo at bar.com
> 
> On my Win NT machine, I can type #!c:\perl\bin\perl.exe into the beginning
> of the script and it will execute properly.  If that doesn't work, invoke
> it
> explicity with perl <your-script-name> (this assumes Perl is in your
> path).
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Greg Mushen
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthew Lasar [mailto:matthew at lasarletter.com]
> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 7:03 PM
> To: spug-list at pm.org
> Subject: SPUG: a split question . . . 
> 
> 
> Dear Spuggers:
> 
> I have a question about a line of split script.
> 
> I am a beginning Perl person. I work at the University of California Press
> in the IS department and I'm teaching myself Perl because it seems like it
> will be useful for all sorts of things. I'm working my way through a book
> called *SAMs Teach Yourself Perl in 24 Hours*. 
> 
> Let me assure you, 24 hours came and went quite a while ago.
> 
> Anyway, so here's this sample database program which starts with the
> following lines of code:
> 
> #!/usr/bin/perl -w
> open(PH, "database.txt") or die "Cannot open database.txt: $!\n";
> while(<PH>) {
> 	chomp;
> 	($number, $email)=(split(/\s+/, $_)) [1,2];
> 
> The book doesn't adequately explain the last piece of this script, the
> "[1,2];" part. What is this for? Also, if I've got windows 95, what should
> I really put after "#!"? That stuff looks like a unix path to me.
> 
> I am grateful for the existence of this list, and for any help you care to
> offer.
> 
> cordially
> 
> Matthew Lasar
> 
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