dear thomas, thanks very much for the suggestions! still - the only thing i think my problem is this (IN CAPITALS): foreach $line (@search) { # .... # extract image-file and dir name (match for 'gif' or 'jpg' endings, # or in an HTML file, match <IMG src="xxx"> tags), # if match: # check if image-file exists in 'pic', HOW DO I CHECK THE IMAGEFILE IF I DONT ITERATE OVER THE DIRECTORY THAT CONTAINS THE IMAGES? (Or did I get this wrong?) NO, CORERECT! If the text file is actually an HTML-file, I would use HTML::Parser for parsing it (<IMG> tags, I guess). WELL, ITS ACTUALLY A DUMP FROM A SQL-DATABASE COBMINED WITH SOME IMAGE-NAMES:) /(=\"?\/?.*?(\b[a-z0-9_]*?\b))?\/?($dollar)\"?/ig) Please always provide an example (the actual line and the desired result of the match) or comment your regular expression EX: <IMG SRC="SOMEDIR/FILENAME.GIF" MORE STUFF> If the file was matched, it would be more efficient to exit the inner foreach with the 'last;' statement WHICH INNER FOREACH? AGAIN I THINK MY PROBLEM IS TO ITERATE OVER BOTH THE TXT-FILE AND THE ARRAY CONTAINS THE IMAGE-FILE-NAMES AT THE SAME TIME again thanks very much allan original message below: _______________________ Hi Allan. >hi, > >using the copy module i´ve written a (beginners)script, which will look in a >txt.file to detecte images (gifs or jpgs) which at the same time also occur >in a directory named "pics". when found in the txt.file it will make the >relevant directory-name and copy the relevant image into that directory just >created. the whole stuff goes into a direcory called "copied". If this is what you want, why are you iterating over all files in the 'pic' directory? Let's look at the worst case: 3000 files in 'pic' * 3000 lines in your text file = 9.000.000 iterations (Oops, need a CRAY? :-) It would be much more efficient to iterate over the lines in your text file: foreach $line (@search) { # .... # extract image-file and dir name (match for 'gif' or 'jpg' endings, # or in an HTML file, match <IMG src="xxx"> tags), # if match: # check if image-file exists in 'pic', # mkdir (if exists) , # copy file from 'pic' (if exists) to new dir #.... # max. 3.000 iterations (IMHO) } (Or did I get this wrong?) >it does seem to work but i would greatly appriciate if someone could come >with a few pointers as for how to optimize the script - it is very slow when >tested on large amounts of images (2-3000)(the txt file is also large (3.000 >lines)), so thats why i´ve put a timer in the script. > >thanks in advance >allan > >#!/pack/collect/bin/perl > >$start = (times)[0]; > >opendir(COPYDIR, "pic") or die "cant open pic"; >@pics = readdir(COPYDIR); >closedir(COPYDIR); > >open(FRONTHTML, "dump.txt")or die "cant open dump.txt"; >@search = <FRONTHTML>; If the text file is actually an HTML-file, I would use HTML::Parser for parsing it (<IMG> tags, I guess). > > >for ($i=0; $i<=$#pics; $i++) > { > $dollar = @pics[$i]; > if ($dollar =~ /[a-z0-9_]\.(gif|jpg)/ig) > { > foreach $line (@search) > { > if ($line =~ >/(=\"?\/?.*?(\b[a-z0-9_]*?\b))?\/?($dollar)\"?/ig) Please always provide an example (the actual line and the desired result of the match) or comment your regular expression > { > $directory = $2; > > opendir(COPYMASTER, ".") or die "unable"; > @nomast = readdir(COPYMASTER); > closedir(COPYMASTER); > mkdir("copied/$directory", 0666); > > use File::Copy; > > >copy("pic/$dollar","copied/$directory/$dollar"); > copy("Copy.pm",\*STDOUT);' > > use POSIX; > use File::Copy cp; > > $n=FileHandle->new("/dev/null","r"); > cp($n,"x");' If the file was matched, it would be more efficient to exit the inner foreach with the 'last;' statement > } > #else > # { > # unlink "pic/$dollar"; > # } > } > } > } > >$end = (times)[0]; >$secs = $end - $start; > >open(FOUR, ">time.txt") ; >print FOUR $secs; >close(FOUR); > HTH Best regards --Thomas ==== Want to unsubscribe from this list? ==== Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to macperl-anyperl-request@macperl.org ==== Want to unsubscribe from this list? ==== Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to macperl-anyperl-request@macperl.org