Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array

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

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
•Re: Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array by merlyn (Sage) on Aug 05, 2003 at 21:34 UTC
Two ways come to mind immediately: `my (undef, undef, $third) = split ",", $foo;` [download] or `my $third = (split ",", $foo)[2];` [download] -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array by Limbic~Region (Chancellor) on Aug 05, 2003 at 21:37 UTC
MasterGremlin, Someone will likely beat me to the punch, but what you want to do is treat the split anonymously. You can then get the index you want and throw away the rest. `print ((split ',' , $foo)[2])); print "\n";` [download] That just looks nasty. I use this quite a bit when using stat and am only interested in say the file size, but then I am assigning it to a single scalar $size as merlyn shows, which eliminates the need for the second set of parens. Cheers - Limbic~Region Update Added parens to get it to work.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array by leriksen (Curate) on Aug 06, 2003 at 03:05 UTC
um - why dont you use File::Stat's OO interface - surely it is also clearer to others what you are doing `use File::Stat; print File::Stat->new($file)->size(), "\n";` [download] granted, this is a module that isn't standard in Perl, as opposed to stat(), so you need to do the MakeMaker waltz, but I think it is worth going the extra mile for the much clearer code. Is there a reason why you prefer stat() ?	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Re: Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array by RMGir (Prior) on Aug 06, 2003 at 11:55 UTC
granted, this is a module that isn't standard in Perl, as opposed to stat(), so you need to do the MakeMaker waltz, but I think it is worth going the extra mile for the much clearer code. In many cases, scripts have to run on multiple platforms, with different versions of perl/mod_perl. In those situations, it's painful to have to build File::Stat just so someone doesn't have to see `my $size=(stat $file)[7]`, which is pretty clear anyhow if you assign it to an appropriately named variable. If you KNOW all the platforms have 5.8.0 or better available, you could use File::stat, but I'm not sure that's that big a win either over just plain stat. I guess I just prefer the builtin in this case. -- Mike	[reply] [d/l]
Re3: (File's size) Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array by bbfu (Curate) on Aug 06, 2003 at 19:09 UTC
Or even just: `my $size = -s $file;` bbfu Black flowers blossom Fearless on my breath	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array by broquaint (Abbot) on Aug 05, 2003 at 22:51 UTC
Or yet another way to do it ... `my $foo = 'foo,bar,baz'; print +(split ',' => $foo)[2], $/; __output__ baz` [download] The `+` force the evaluation on the right-hand side and then we just access the 3rd element from the list returned by `split`. HTH `_________ broquaint`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Retrieve only what I need from split without using temp array by demerphq (Chancellor) on Aug 05, 2003 at 22:14 UTC
Well, this is a little overkill for this situation, sometimes `print do{my @temp=split /,/,$foo; $temp[2]},"\n";` [download] comes in useful: `my $slurped=do{local $/; open my $fh,$file or die "$file:$!"; <$fh>};` [download] --- demerphq _{<Elian> And I do take a kind of perverse pleasure in having an OO assembly language...}	[reply] [d/l] [select]