Re: Re: Reading from a file on a NT server

I am checking the return value of open() in my script. I removed this for simplicty when I asked for help. Below is my exact code for opening, reading and closing the file.

$SaleFile="sales.csv";

# Print databases name
print "DATABASE FILE: $SaleFile<br>\n";

# Check to see if database exists
if (-e "$SaleFile"){print "FILE CHECK: $SaleFile does exist<br>\n"}els
+e{print "FILE CHECK: ERROR: $SaleFile does NOT exist<br>\n";}

# Open file for reading
if (open(DAT,"$SaleFile") <= 0){print "ERROR: $SaleFile can't be opene
+d<br>\n";}else{print "$SaleFile was opened successfully<br>\n";}

# Read from database
print <DAT>;
@inFile=<DAT>;

# Close database file
if (close(DAT) <= 0) {print "ERROR: $SaleFile can't be closed<br>\n";}
+else{print "$SaleFile was closed successfully<br>\n";}

print "DATABASE SIZE: $#inFile<br>\n";
print "DATABASE: @inFile<br>\n";
[download]

Cheers,

Scotty

Comment on Re: Re: Reading from a file on a NT server Download Code

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Re: Re: Re: Reading from a file on a NT server by Fletch (Bishop) on Jan 30, 2003 at 16:14 UTC
Ok, a few comments: Asking for help with code and then giving people different code probably isn't going to help uncover problems with the actual code. If you're not going to submit the actual code, pare the actual code down until you have the smallest chunk that exhibits the problem you're seeing. Checking for the existance of a file and then opening it creates a race condition. Not as much of a problem in this case, but it's a well known way to introduce bugs (or worse, security problems). Just open the file, and if it fails and you really want to know why check if `$!` was `POSIX::ENOENT` The usual idiom is `open(...) or die "Can't open foo: $!\n"`; you're possibly betraying a C heritage, but remember Perl isn't C. `$#array` is the index of the last element, not the size. You mean `print "Size: ", scalar @inFile, "\n"` Putting ""'s around a single scalar variable (e.g. `"$SaleFile"`) is pretty much useless (except in the case where the scalar contains a blessed object with a custom stringification routine, but that's not the case here).	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: Re: Reading from a file on a NT server by Jenda (Abbot) on Jan 30, 2003 at 16:16 UTC
`... # Read from database print <DAT>; @inFile=<DAT>;` [download] Erm ... you've already read the file and printed it to the screen. :-) Jenda	[reply] [d/l]