Re: Help me write a good reg-exp for this text

If you don't mind loosing the numbers at the end of some of the fields (or at least storing them elsewhere) you could just use a split

use strict;

my $str = <<TXT;
Total index                                              B50001
 Crude processing (capacity)                             B5610C
 Primary & semifinished processing (capacity)            B562A3C
 Finished processing (capacity)                          B5640C
 Manufacturing ("SIC")                                   B00004
  Manufacturing (NAICS)                                  GMF
   Durable manufacturing (NAICS)                         GMFD
    Wood product                                         G321         
+    321
    Nonmetallic mineral product                          G327         
+    327
    Primary metal                                        G331         
+    331
     Iron and steel products                             G3311A2      
+    3311,2
    Fabricated metal product                             G332         
+    332
    Machinery                                            G333         
+    333
TXT

my(%hash, %numbers);
for(split "\n" => $str) {
  my @fields = reverse split;
  $numbers{$fields[1]} = shift @fields
    if $fields[0] =~ /\d(?:,\d+)?/;
  $hash{$fields[0]} = join ' ' => reverse @fields[1 .. $#fields];
}

my $code = 'GMF';

print "$code: $hash{$code}.\n";

__output__

GMF: Manufacturing (NAICS).
[download]

So that should give you the hash you want.
HTH

_________ broquaint

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Re2: Help me write a good reg-exp for this text by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Sep 05, 2003 at 16:19 UTC
That doesn't work. Many of the text descriptions have spaces in them, plus there's spaces at the beginning of most of the lines. As this is fixed length, use unpack. Now, you're going to have to also use some logic if you care about the indenting stuff to make sure that you don't keep that whitespace at the beginning of your description. If you don't, it's easy enough to strip off the indenting whitespace. To get what you exactly wanted, do something like: # Change these to the actual column widths. Use a star at the end to g +et the rest. my @column_widths = (###, ###, ''); my $unpack_spec = join ' ', map { "A$_" } @column_widths; my %codes; while (<IN_FILE>) { chomp; my ($desc, $code, $other_thingy) = unpack $unpack_spec, $_; # If you want to remove the pre-pended whitespace on the descripti +on ... $desc =~ s/^\s+//; $codes{$code} = { Description => $desc, Other_Thing => $other_thingy, }; } my $choice = 'GMT'; print "$choice: $codes{$choice}{Description}\n"; [download] ------ We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.* The idea is a little like C++ templates, except not quite so brain-meltingly complicated. -- TheDamian, Exegesis 6 Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.	[reply] [d/l]

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Re2: Help me write a good reg-exp for this text
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Sep 05, 2003 at 16:19 UTC

As this is fixed length, use unpack. Now, you're going to have to also use some logic if you care about the indenting stuff to make sure that you don't keep that whitespace at the beginning of your description. If you don't, it's easy enough to strip off the indenting whitespace. To get what you exactly wanted, do something like:

# Change these to the actual column widths. Use a star at the end to g
+et the rest.
my @column_widths = (###, ###, '*');
my $unpack_spec = join ' ', map { "A$_" } @column_widths;

my %codes;
while (<IN_FILE>)
{
    chomp;
    my ($desc, $code, $other_thingy) = unpack $unpack_spec, $_;

    # If you want to remove the pre-pended whitespace on the descripti
+on ...
    $desc =~ s/^\s+//;

    $codes{$code} = {
        Description => $desc,
        Other_Thing => $other_thingy,
    };
}

my $choice = 'GMT';
print "$choice: $codes{$choice}{Description}\n";
[download]

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

The idea is a little like C++ templates, except not quite so brain-meltingly complicated. -- TheDamian, Exegesis 6

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

[reply]
[d/l]