Re^2: Checking Variable for Not Null

Hi, what i mean by null in this case is i'm checking a date position in a file (for example position 140-148). If there is no date passed:

$ex_date=substr($_,140,8);$ex_date =~ s/\s+$//;
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then i would want to skip to the next record.

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Re^3: Checking Variable for Not Null
by Athanasius (Archbishop) on May 27, 2015 at 15:17 UTC

In that case, your “null” corresponds to the empty string, so you can test for true or false (because the empty string is “false” in Perl):

next if !$ex_date;
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But it’s better (because clearer) to make the test explicit:

next if length $ex_date == 0;
# or
next if $ex_date eq "";
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Hope that helps,

by dirtdog (Monk) on May 27, 2015 at 15:22 UTC

Yes, thank you. that's a big help.