in reply to Re: Converting CSV files to fixed width flat files
in thread Converting CSV files to fixed width flat files

halley,
Just to extend your very correct comment a little further: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Text::CSV;
my $csv = Text::CSV->new;
open (INPUT,"input.txt") or die "\nCan't open input.txt for reading : 
+$!\n";
open (OUTPUT,">output.txt") or die "\nCan't open output.txt for writin
+g : $!\n";
select OUTPUT;
while (<INPUT>) {
    $csv->parse($_);
    my @IF = $csv->fields();
    foreach my $element (@IF) {
        #printf command goes here
    }
    print "\n";
}

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Of course printf may truncate fields that are too short long and there are more programmer efficient ways to do the printf. I was just using this syntax for readability purposes.

Cheers - L~R

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Re: Re: Re: Converting CSV files to fixed width flat files
by graff (Chancellor) on May 28, 2003 at 01:55 UTC
    To the best of my knowledge, printf (and sprintf) will never truncate a field that is too long for the width specified in the format string -- it will always provide each field with as many characters as needed to fit a given string with "%s" or all digits with "%d", or all digits to the left of the decimal point with "%f", thereby screwing up the programmer's intended vertical alignment of fields on successive lines, rather than eliminate significant data that would not have fit the programmer's margins.

    update: thanks to PodMaster for some much needed tutoring... my comments above did not consider format specs that really do impose field truncation, like "%1.1s" -- I was only thinking of the more common flavor, like "%1s", which does not truncate. (I still don't know how to truncate numerics...)

[reply]
      To the best of my knowledge, printf (and sprintf) will never truncate a field that is too long for the width specified in the format string
      s?printf does what you tell it  printf "%1.1s$/", 'foy'; yields 'f',  printf "%s$/", 'foy'; yields 'foy'. As for Limbic~Regions note, you can't convert variable width "records" to fixed width ones without possibly undergoing some truncation ;)

      MJD says you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!
      I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6x+5.8x. I take requests.
      ** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

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