in reply to need help: substitute n-th word in a line

Another method... 
use warnings;
use strict;

my $N = 3;
my $new = "NEW";

while (<DATA>) {
    my @words = split /\s+/;
    $words[$N-1] = $new if scalar @words >= $N;
    print join " ", @words, "\n";
}

__DATA__
hi there everyone I am looking to substitute
lots of words for new ones, but only the third
word per line on each line!
one
one two
one two three
one two three four

[download]

output: 

hi there NEW I am looking to substitute 
lots of NEW for new ones, but only the third 
word per NEW on each line! 
one 
one two 
one two NEW 
one two NEW four

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: need help: substitute n-th word in a line
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 16, 2003 at 17:01 UTC

    Just having fun with your code, however, I think this would be cool:

    use warnings;
use strict;

my $N = -3;
my $new = "NEW";

while (<DATA>) {
    local $[ = 1;
    my @words = split /\s+/;
    $words[$N] = $new if @words >= abs($N);
    print join " ", @words, "\n";
}

__DATA__
hi there everyone I am looking to substitute
lots of words for new ones, but only the third
word per line on each line!
one
one two
one two three
one two three four

__END__
outputs:
hi there everyone I am NEW to substitute
lots of words for new ones, but NEW the third
word per line NEW each line!
one
one two
NEW two three
one NEW three four

    [download]

    Yay! Now we can specify from either end :)

    Anonymously yours,
    Anonymous Monk

[reply]
[d/l]

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