Re: [MacPerl] Columns Related Comment

[Matt Childress <childress@news-gazette.com>]

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody -- even though I haven't had a need
to do collumns, just from this simple question, I've learned some new stuff
and different ways to do things.  Cool. (I'm easily amused/entertained ;-).
That unpack stuff was neat... wish I'd read that page of the llama a while
back...

Thanks again for the lightbulb over the head,

Matt


At 11:31 AM -0600 1/2/97, John Gilmore-Baldwin wrote:
>>Hallo,
>>
>>I have a (text) file with the following format:
>>
>>123420010110010010101  (and so on this way => )
>>234531111101100101010
>>678940000010010111010
>>340151010101110101010
>>and so on...
>>
>>Now let's say the first four characters are a PIN number,
>>the following two characters the subject's age, and so on.
>>How can I read such a file split in (fixed) columns ?
>>I would like to insert tabs at the end of each field, creating
>>a tab-delimited text file.
>>
>
>Try something along these lines:
>
>$template = "a4 a2 a2";
>
>($pin, $age, $so-on) = unpack($template, $_);
>
>The "a4 a2 ..." is defining alpha fields for the unpack instruction.  So
>it'll take the first four chars and make it a field, the next 2 and make it
>a field, etc. It's quite handy, and with Perl's loose type checking, quite
>flexible.
>
>templates can do a whole lot more, if you want, and are discusses in the
>programming perl books.


childress@news-gazette.com
http://www.news-gazette.com/