Array question

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

This is my hopefully last question.... I am using the following code to read a flat file:

open(FILE,"< tiles.txt") or die "error opening tiles.txt  $!";
tie @text, 'Tie::File', 'tiles.txt' or die $!;
@text = shuffle(@text);
while (<FILE>) {
  ($File[$i], $Name[$i], $Keywords[$i]) = split(/:/);
 chomp ($Keywords[$i]);
$i++;
}
close(FILE);
[download]

The file has 48 entries in it, and I am only using 24 of these entries at a time. The file contains pairs of very similar entries. For example, $file in one entry is algiz and in another entry it is algiz-r. How do I make sure that only the first of these encountered is put into the list? IOW, if I have already added algiz-r somewhere I do not want algiz added. Hope I didn't confuse everyone too much. :-)

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Re: Array question by chromatic (Archbishop) on Jun 16, 2003 at 03:14 UTC
Keep a hash of `$File` entries you've seen. You'll have to mangle them to make sure that `algiz` and `algiz-r` use the same key, but that's pretty easy. `my %seen; while (<FILE>) { chomp; my ($file, $name, $keyword) = split( /:/, $_, 3 ); (my $filekey = $file) =~ s/-r$//; next if $seen{$filekey}++; ($File[$i], $Name[$i], $Keywords[$i]) = ( $file, $name, $keyword ) +; $i++; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Array question by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Jun 16, 2003 at 03:24 UTC
You need to define what kind and how much similarity is significant. Does 'axolotl' disqualify 'algiz'? Your example suggests that `$_ = [split /-/];` may be helpful, in conjunction with (as always with uniqueness problems) a hash, `$hash{$_->[0]} = $data if not exists $hash{$_->[0]};`. Why do you tie the file to @text and then go ahead and work with the redundant FILE? On many systems, opening FILE first guarantees that FILE will not see the results of the shuffle. This is my hopefully last question....* I hope not :-) After Compline, Zaxo	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Array question by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jun 16, 2003 at 12:48 UTC
Maybe you got this this from Zaxo's answer, in which case, this will be a redundant post, but I think Zaxo was a little gentle in his statement. If your going to use Tie::File, don't open and <read> it yourself as well. Imagine how confused your dog will get if you start barking at the postman yourself:) Either tie the file to an the array, and use the array Or open the file and <read> it. but don't do both. Examine what is said, not who speaks. "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham "When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." -Richard Buckminster Fuller	[reply]