Hi Rob, Actually I am writing a script that actually spits out various make template files. People then fill in these templates with neccessary details and use them. The thing is that there are atleast 4-5 different templates and depending on the cmd line arg, the script needs to output one of these template files. Definitely I would not like to open a file, read it and then output it since moving the script (to another project etc) would mean that the files need to be moved too. Having this information in the same script would make it self contained.
Does that make sense... Thanks .. On 2/7/07, Rob Dixon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sharan Basappa wrote: > > On 2/6/07, Tom Phoenix <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> On 2/6/07, Sharan Basappa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> Question is how to embed text in a perl program instead of reading it >>> from a file or initializing the text in a string variable. >> >> Are you looking for here-documents? Look in perlop under Quote and >> Quote-like Operators to see the different ways of putting text data >> into your program. >> >>> Another question is whether perl will replace the variable defined in the >>> embedded text with actual values ? >> >> Do you mean double-quote interpolation? Here-docs normally >> interpolate, but you can disable that (akin to single-quoting instead >> of double-quoting). >> >> > while (<MY_BLOCK>) >> >> > __MY_BLOCK__ >> >> It looks as if you've seen the special DATA filehandle and the >> __DATA__ marker; but those don't generalize like that. Nice try, >> though. (If you change those back to DATA in your program, I think it >> will do what you expected. Consider adding 'use strict' and 'use >> warnings', though.) > > What if I wanted to have multiple embedded (and separate) texts embedded in > my program. Are you saying that I can have only one text section and that > should have keyword DATA. Actually when I wrote example, I assumed that > double underscore tell the parser that a text section starts (so used my own > name - my_block) What the DATA filehandle does is to allow the Perl program to read from its own source file. The read position is set initially to the point after the end of the program marked by the __END__ tag (as a mnemonic the __DATA__ tag serves the same purpose). Since a program has only one source file there can be only one such magic filehandle. (As a point of interest, it's possible for a program to read its own source by issuing "seek DATA, 0, 0" before reading from the handle.) It's clearly possible to add markers within the data so the the program can split it up itself, but how about explaining a little more about what you want to do: I'm sure the list can come up with an appropriate solution for you. What is wrong, for instance, with using real separate data files? HTH, Rob
