http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=693085


in reply to framework for data parsing

It's not too hard to create your own framework for this purpose. Basically you have an input source which produces data records and an output formatter which prints a data record to a file. A typical data-munging program will look like:
my $input = ...create input source object... my $output = ...create output formatter object... while (my $data = $input->next) { # do something to $data $output->print($data); }

The key decision will be what to use for your data record object. A good generic choice is to use a hash-ref.

Next, for each input file format (i.e. parse specification) you need to be able to create an input source object whose ->next method will produce the next data record (or undef it there isn't any more.) Typically this will be done by reading a line from a file handle and parsing it according to some template or set of rules.

Finally, for each output format you need to be able to create an object which can 'print' a data record to a file.

And that's basically it. Once you have created all of the constructors for your input source and output formatter objects, you can freely mix and match them enabling any algorithm to read from any input source and write in any format.