At 11:53 06.07.2001 -0400, Aaron Petry wrote:
> I have a comma delimited file like this:
>"field1","field 2","Some longer field 3 here","And some field 4"
>.I want to ask my users how many fields there are and populate that to a
>scalar, then ask them what the field titles are and shove that input into
>an array. Then I want to ask them which field (asking for the number, not
>the title) has a key value. I want to then take that input, use it to
>make a hash of each record, then a hash of those hashes so that I have all
>the records. I'm fine until that last step, and I keep thinking I've
>worked it out, and then I run into another snag. Here's what I have so far.
I think I know what you're trying to do :)
>use strict;
>
>my($file1, $f1fnum, @f1fname, $f1namef, $f1key);
>
>#First, get the path of the file that has the names that need to be compared.
>#The first line prints the question, the second line assigns the typed
>response, less the newline
>#to a variable name.
>
>print "What is the path of the file that needs to be matched? ";
>chomp($file1 = <STDIN>);
>open(FILE1,'$file1') || die "I can't seem to find that file. Here's why: $!";
>
>#Now, check to get information about the file itself.
>
>print "\nHow many fields are there in this file? ";
>chomp($f1fnum = <STDIN>);
>
>print "\nPlease type the field names (no spaces) separated by commas. \n
>For example, Name, Address1, City, etc.: ";
you say no spaces, and then your example uses spaces :)
>chomp(@f1fname = <STDIN>);
I would do this:
my $line = <STDIN>;
chomp $line;
@f1fname = split(/,/, $line);
and then some error checking:
print "Field counts do not match!\n" if(scalar(@f1fname) != $f1fnum);
>print "\nWhich field (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) has the name filed to be compared? ";
>chomp($f1namef = <STDIN>);
>--$f1namef;
>
>print "\nWhich field (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) has some unique identifier for
>each record? ";
>chomp($f1key = <STDIN>);
>--$f1key;
>
>print "\nThat's all I need for file 1, but now I have some questions about
>the file you will be comparing to.\n";
>
>my($i, %hfile1);
>#Now, we'll need to load the file into two hashes of hashes. I know that
>I will need to loop through line by
>#line, so...
>while (<FILE1>){
>#Now, I know that I need to match each field with it's name from the array
>to make the inner hash.
>#I also need to then add that to the outer hash, and start with the next
>line. I just don't know how
>#to do that part.
**** untested! ****
my $raRecords = [];
while(<FILE>)
{
my $rhNameValues = {};
chomp;
my @asFields = split(/,/, $_);
if(scalar(@asFields) != scalar(@f1fname) # make sure the field
counts line up
{
print "malformed line\n";
close FILE;
exit;
}
my $lCount = 0;
foreach my $sFieldName (@f1fname)
{
$rhNameValue->{$sFieldName} = $asFields[$lCount];
$lCount++;
}
push(@{ $raRecords }, $rhNameValue);
}
now you've got an array ref $raRecords with n hash refs $rhNameValue. Each
hash ref contains a key for each field your user defined, with its value
being the field it grabbed out of the file
Aaron Craig
Programming
iSoftitler.com
