So, please show us the code that you've already written and also explain what it should do and how your current code fails to do that.

This helps us help you much better, because we then see at what knowledge level you are and where we can best improve your learning of Perl.

In addition to showing us the code you already got, as Corion suggested, could you also add a bit of formatting to your post so we'll know how your data is structured? I got a hunch there's linebreaks in there somewhere, and it'd be helpful to know where they are.

Here's some nodes with helpful information:

• How do I post a question effectively?
• Writeup Formatting Tips
• Markup in the Monastery

You'll make it much easier for us to help you that way.

• Read the data source into a data structure using the name as an index (see associative arrays in perldoc perldata)
• Ask for partial name chomp(my $name=<STDIN>);
• Perform a case insensitive partial match of the name against the index (see perlre)
• Iterate through the indices of the associative array printing out any that match the test above see perlsyn (foreach) and also the keys operator of associative arrays

So put up the code you wrote and we'll try and hack it into shape, providing you with a complete solution is not helping you in the longer term.

Hi

As you are new here, you need to first learn how to post questions and what you should do before asking questions here. First you have to try yourself that how you will learn.

Here is the little bit code I write for you, It asks any string(first/last) name and checks with each line of the music.txt file, if matches prints the details as you asked.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;


open(FH, "<", "./music.txt") or die $!;

while(1)
{
        print "Enter Either First or Last name of the artist -1 to qui
+te>";
        my $input =<STDIN>;
        chomp($input);
        if($input eq '-1')
        {
                exit;
        }
        if($input =~/^$/)
        {
                next;
        }
        &findArtist($input);
}

sub findArtist
{
        my $userInput=shift;
        my $eachLine;
        my ($artistName,$cdTitle,$date,$price);
        my $flag=0;
        seek(FH, 0, 0);
        while($eachLine=<FH>)
        {
                 ($artistName,$cdTitle,$date,$price)= split(/:/,$eachL
+ine);

                 if($artistName =~/$userInput/i){
                        print "Artist Name:$artistName\n","CD title:$c
+dTitle\n","Date:$date\n","Price:\$$price\n";
                        $flag=1;
                 }
        }
        print "Artist not found\n" unless($flag);
}
close(FH);
[download]

Fixed the bug posted by marto, thanks marto, good exercise for me.

Consider the following points. You search the entire line, rather than the artist name, example data:

Seamus McGuire:The Wishing Tree:09-14-2000:14.95
Foo:Bar:01-01-2000:15.00
Bar:Baz:01-01-2000:150.00
[download]

Searching for Bar:

Entery Either First or Last name of the artist:-1 to quite>Bar
Artist Name:Foo
CD title:Bar
Date:01-01-2000
Price:$15.00

Artist Name:Bar
CD title:Baz
Date:01-01-2000
Price:$15.00

Entery Either First or Last name of the artist:-1 to quite>
[download]

To resolve this split the line into individual fields and match on the artist name only. You could also remove the $flag variable and just add an else to your if. Note that currently your searches are case sensitive. I know OP was not very specific when posting, but many people tend not to consider case to when using search interfaces. A slightly amended prompt:

print "Enter either First or Last name of the artist:-1 to quit> ";
[download]

Now here's the interesting part, restart the program and search for "Bar" twice:

Entery Either First or Last name of the artist:-1 to quite>Bar
Artist Name:Foo
CD title:Bar
Date:01-01-2000
Price:$15.00

Artist Name:Bar
CD title:Baz
Date:01-01-2000
Price:$150.00

Entery Either First or Last name of the artist:-1 to quite>Bar
Artist not found
Entery Either First or Last name of the artist:-1 to quite>
[download]

I'll leave this as an excercise for you :)

Update: Strike out nonsense, the pitfalls of my poor multi tasking.

If i remove the $flag and add else it prints "Artist not found" for each line that does not match the user input.

---

All is well

chomp, push @a, [split /:/, $_] for <DATA>;

print "name? " and chomp($i = <STDIN>);

@$_[0] =~/$i/i and print "\n@$_[0]\n@$_[1] (@$_[2]) @$_[3]\$\n" for @a
+;


__DATA__
Seamus McGuire:The Wishing Tree:09-14-2000:14.95
Pat Kilbride:Loose Cannon:07-02-2000:15.95
Kevin Crawford:Seasons of Mists:06-23-2000:16.95
Prince:Purple Rain:01-01-1995:3.95
Meat Loaf:Bat out of Jell:03-03-1980:11.95
[download]