Why do you not use Archive::SevenZip?

Did not even know that exists. Will have a look if i can get it installed. Thank you.

          system ('C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe',' e ',$archive,' -r'
+,$extdir,$file,' n n') or die $!;
         # maybe n n  should be \n\n ? 
         system ('C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe', ' e ', $archive,' -r
+ ,$extdir,$file' , "\n\n\") or die $!;
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my @files = glob qq($base\\Gridfee0?.7z\\Gridfee?\\invoic_b2c_$year$mo
+nth$day*.txt);
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Also start printing out your data arrays to make sure they were filled as a debugging aid.

Also, just test extraction first. Can you get your script to do a 7z with the x option on the file? That will ensure it all works, before trying to extract files individually.

Not sure what you are doing with the glob statements. Try this test program which should list the files in an archive that match the invoic_b2c etc pattern

#!perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $base = 'D:/Some/Specific/Folder/Archive/';
my $archive = $base.'Gridfee05.7z';

my $exe = '"C:/Program Files/7-Zip/7z.exe"';

my @files = grep /invoic_b2c_201\d{5}.*\.txt/, qx "$exe l $archive";
print scalar @files." files found in $archive - see filelist.txt\n\n";

open OUT,'>',"filelist.txt" or die "$!";
print OUT join "\n",@files;
close OUT;
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It appears you are attempting concatenation with the '.' operator but inside of qq(). In that context the period is just text and not an operator. Try getting your glob to work first and keep adding small tested chunks to your program until you have built up what you need. Also, the '\' backslash inside a glob is seen as quoting the next character. You need to use the front slash '/' inside a glob.

Just glancing at the rest of the program, I don't think millions of calls to 7z.exe is going to work like this. Inside your nested loop when you call 7zip each time it will need to extract the archive to find the file you need. It might make more sense to unzip everything at once to a temporary folder and then operate on the files, then remove the temporary folder.

# !perl

use strict; # because we should
use warnings; # because we should

my $base = 'C:\usr\pm\temp\test1\\';

my $search = qq($base.Gridfee0?.7z\\);
print "1: $search \n";
my $search2 = qq(${base}Gridfee0?.7z\\);
print "2: $search2 \n";
my $search3 = qq(C:/usr/pm/temp/test1/Gridfee0?.7z\\);
print "3: $search3 \n";

my $archive = glob qq($base.Gridfee0?.7z\\);
    #Tried glob qq($base.Gridfee0?.7z\\Gridfee*\\) and glob qq($base.G
+ridfee0?.7z) too, same result
    
print "archive = $archive\n";

my @archs = glob $search3;
    #Tried glob qq($base.Gridfee0?.7z\\Gridfee*\\) and glob qq($base.G
+ridfee0?.7z) too, same result
    
print "archs = @archs\n";

__END__

Use of uninitialized value $archive in concatenation (.) or string at 
+C:\usr\pm\temp\1192612.pl line 18.
1: C:\usr\pm\temp\test1\.Gridfee0?.7z\ 
2: C:\usr\pm\temp\test1\Gridfee0?.7z\ 
3: C:/usr/pm/temp/test1/Gridfee0?.7z\ 
archive = 
archs = C:/usr/pm/temp/test1/Gridfee02.7z\ C:/usr/pm/temp/test1/Gridfe
+e05.7z\
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my $base = 'D:\Some\Specific\Folder\Archive\\';
# should be:
my $base = 'D:/Some/Specific/Folder/Archive'; # a path to a directory
or
my $base = "D:/Some/Specific/Folder/Archive"; # a path to a directory
# do not put a trailing '/' or '\' on a directory name
# this is not needed and can confuse the shell
# pre-pend a '/' when you expand the path
my $new = "$base/$extra_path";
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my @files = glob qq($base\\Gridfee0?.7z\\Gridfee?\\invoic_
+b2c_$year$month$day*.txt);
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I am curious as to why you are using .7z suffixes? I like 7z. It generates .zip files faster which use less memory than the MS zip program does. These .zip files generated by 7z are compatible with Windows .zip. I've never used the .7z specific format because the .zip MS compatible format appears to be just fine for my applications. Again, if 7z makes that .zip it will be smaller than what MS does, be generated faster and yet be compatible with MS .zip.

I have had problems with directory names which include a space. Try the "short name" instead. You can use the /X option of dir to find it. It probably is PROGRA~1 for Program Files. Even if this 'works', I would consider it a debug aid, not a permanent fix.

UPDATE: Add example of using system with windows. I expect that it will run on most windows machines. It demonstrates how much the short names and forward slashes can simplify the quoting. The following example displays the perlmonks forum using Microsoft internet explorer.

use strict;
use warnings;
my $browser = 'iexplore.exe';
my $arg1 = 'http://perlmonks.com';
my $cmd;

$cmd = "C:/PROGRA~1/INTERN~1/$browser";
print "$cmd, $arg1\n";
print "hit any key to run command.  Close IE to contine.";
<>;
system $cmd, $arg1;

print "Back again\n";

$cmd = "\"C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\$browser\"";
print "$cmd, $arg1\n";
print "hit any key to run command.  Close IE to continue.";
<>;
system $cmd, $arg1;

print "Back again\n";
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Howdy!

...assuming that the file actually has a short name. One cannot rely on that being the case, I have learned, to my great annoyance.

yours,
Michael

Yes, an excellent reason not to leave this in production code. If it works now, why not use it to debug the quoting by eliminating one big problem?
Bill

Thank you for all the tips everyone!

Quite a few things to get through, love the challenge.

Since the glob thing has been mentioned more than once, so I'll give a quick explanation what I'm trying to do with them.

The first one: my $archive = glob qq($base.Gridfee0?.7z\\); I need to use a wildcard, there are 7 zipfiles named 'Gridfee01' up to 'Gridfee07' which i need to get through.

The second one: my @files = glob qq($base\\Gridfee0?.7z\\Gridfee?\\invoic_b2c_$year$month$day*.txt); Need to use several wildcards here (? twice and a *) and the glob qq() thing is the easiest way that has worked for me until now.

There is nothing wrong with using glob for this purpose but there are some pitfalls. You have to make sure you are giving the glob what it needs which you are not as has been pointed out already. Do your files have whitespace in the names or paths? Do you need to call glob in scalar or array context? There are a few different versions of glob available and you need to specify if you need one other than the built in one. Wildcards are what glob was made for but make sure you understand which metacharacters you are using. Have a look at File::Glob and another look at the replies you have already gotten.

The first one: my $archive = glob qq($base.Gridfee0?.7z\\); I need to use a wildcard, there are 7 zipfiles named 'Gridfee01' up to 'Gridfee07' which i need to get through.

Don't include a trailing "/" in $base or in the glob.
my $archive = glob qq($base/Gridfee0?.7z);

The second one: my @files = glob qq($base\\Gridfee0?.7z\\Gridfee?\\invoic_b2c_$year$month$day*.txt); Need to use several wildcards here (? twice and a *) and the glob qq() thing is the easiest way that has worked for me until now.

The wildcard glob pattern should only be at the end of the "filespec". You cannot expect this to work with multiple wildcards in the "path". There are at least 3 versions of glob() that I have encountered. If you are using glob, keep what it does as simple as possible and use grep{} to further refine the search. You will need to code a loop here or use another method. Do not expect glob() to do implict looping. For the end target, I would use *.txt and use grep{} to filter out files which do not match /_(\d+)\.txt$/. Looping at multiple levels for $year$month$day*.txt makes no sense. Get all .txt files at one "go" and then filter as needed.