Ignoring a Special Character

airblaine has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have the folowing for renumbering lines in a file, but the first line contains a % and the last line contains a %. How would I have the folowing script ignore this character?

$file = "myfile.txt";
open (FILE,"$file") || die $!;
while (<FILE>) {
s/^(N\d+ )?/N$. /;
  }
     continue {
     print; 
  }
[download]

Thanks for your help!

Comment on Ignoring a Special Character Download Code

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Re: Ignoring a Special Character by DamnDirtyApe (Curate) on Aug 29, 2002 at 23:10 UTC
Try this: `#! /usr/bin/perl -w use strict ; $\|++ ; my $line = 0 ; while ( <DATA> ) { next if /^%/ ; s/^(?:N\d+\s?)?(?{$line++})/N$line / ; } continue { print ; } exit ; __DATA__ % This is the first line. N1 Hello there N3 I'm a line of text % but I won't be counted. N5 Here I am, number three! I don't have a line number, but I should be four. % End of text` [download] Output: `% This is the first line. N1 Hello there N2 I'm a line of text % but I won't be counted. N3 Here I am, number three! N4 I don't have a line number, but I should be four. % End of text` [download] _______________ DamnDirtyApe Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity. --Friedrich Nietzsche	[reply] [d/l] [select]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re: Ignoring a Special Character
by DamnDirtyApe (Curate) on Aug 29, 2002 at 23:10 UTC

Try this:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use strict ;
$|++ ;


my $line = 0 ;
while ( <DATA> ) {
    next if /^%/ ;
    s/^(?:N\d+\s?)?(?{$line++})/N$line / ;
} continue {
    print ; 
}


exit ;

__DATA__
% This is the first line.
N1 Hello there
N3 I'm a line of text
% but I won't be counted.
N5 Here I am, number three!
I don't have a line number, but I should be four.
% End of text
[download]

Output:

% This is the first line.
N1 Hello there
N2 I'm a line of text
% but I won't be counted.
N3 Here I am, number three!
N4 I don't have a line number, but I should be four.
% End of text
[download]

DamnDirtyApe

Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who
would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity.
            --Friedrich Nietzsche

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]