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

I am creating and writing data to a file using the Compress::Zlib module.

The code shows how I am using it. Each line of data is a string with no whitespace at the beginning with a return at the end. 

my $gz = gzopen("$filename","wb");
$gz->gzwrite("@{$hash_name{$hash_data}}");
$gz->gzclose();

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Sample output using "zcat myfile" would look something like this: 
# Make Model Year
ford mustang 2003
 toyota landcruiser 1990
 dodge caravan 1998

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I don't know why the leading whitespace. Please help.

Thanks,
Ryan

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: different output from gzwrite
by Paladin (Vicar) on Jul 12, 2003 at 04:04 UTC
    When interpolated into a string, and array has it's elements seperated by $", which by default is a space, so your string ends up looking like "ford mustang 2003\n toyota landcruiser 1990....". Try using 
    { 
  local $" = ""; 
  $gz->gzwrite("@{$hash_name{$hash_data}}");
}

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    which will set $" to the empty string, which will then be put between each element.
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Re: different output from gzwrite
by jsprat (Curate) on Jul 12, 2003 at 04:07 UTC
    Just gzwrite @your_array;

    The reason is the same reason you get similar output if you print "@some_array"; when each element ends with a newline. Each element is separated with $" (also known as the list separator), which defaults to a space. Either leave out the quotes, locally change $" to '' or use something like join '', @your_array;

    For an in depth treatment see perlfaq5 and search for "weird spaces" - or at a prompt type perldoc -q "weird spaces"

    Good luck!

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Re: different output from gzwrite
by bunnyman (Hermit) on Jul 14, 2003 at 14:35 UTC
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