my @res = `ps -ef`;
print @res;
[download]

works. Newlines are preserved.

mitd-Made in the Dark
'My favourite colour appears to be grey.'

Thanks! Apparently backticks were the answer. I can't seem to find my copy of the script in which I initially ran into the problem, but thanks for the help all the same. My goal was to learn a coding principle, rather than have the monks troubleshoot a single piece of code for me.. (Thinking along the "Teach a man to fish" lines)

-Jerry
http://www.digilliance.net

I hate to sound like a broken record, but some sample code would probably help, as we could then see what might be causing the problem. In general though, you should note that system doesn't return standard out, so you should only use backticks for that. System only returns the exit code. As for the problem you describe, I haven't experienced that on my linux boxes, so that is why the code snippet may help.

Scott

Jerry, I agree with Scott, lets see a sample of the output also

Hmm... The fact that you're using @arr[0] rather than $arr[0] in your question makes me suspect you may not have the hang of arrays and slices (yet).

As others have mentioned, post some code; it's much easier to answer specific questions than general ones.

As far as my understanding of arrays, scalars and hashes goes, $arr[0] is correct from a syntactical standpoint, but from a functional standpoint @arr[0] seems virtually indentical.

-Jerry
http://www.digilliance.net

I wouldn't make such statements when brother merlyn is around. ;-)

The difference is a big one. An array slice (which is what @arr[0] is) provides a list context, whereas an array element provides a scalar context. For a graphic illustration, try this code:

my @d = qw(this is a plain array);
my @a;
$a[0] = @d;
print "The scalar got '$a[0]'\n";
@a[0] = @d;
print "But the array slice got '$a[0]'\n";
[download]

Many things in Perl will behave differently in scalar versus list context. If you continue to use @a[0] when you mean $a[0], you will have a surprise one day.

OTOH, it's your code....

foreach (split(/\n/,`$_SQLPLUS -silent /nolog \@$_TMPSCRIPT`)) 
{
  #-- Stuff
}
[download]

This code executes a temporary SQL script with SQL*Plus, splits the output based on a newline, and processes each line (one at a time) as $_.

What I am trying to show is that newlines *ARE* preserved with backticks.

Indeed they are. I made this discovery after trying the code in mitd's post. Thanks for all the help guys!

-Jerry
http://www.digilliance.net