nr0mx has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

In the below piece of code, the newlines between the lines of the poems ( $cookie ) are ignored. How do I get the format to preserve them ? Is there any way to get the desired output without having to eval the format ?

#!/bin/env perl -w
use strict;

my $cookie="Climb the mountains\nand get their good tidings.\nNature's
+ peace will flow into you\nas sunshine flows into trees.\n";
my $author="-John Muir\n";
$: = "- ";
format STDOUT =
        @|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        "------------------------------------------------"
~~     ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
        $cookie
        @||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        $author
        @|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        "------------------------------------------------"
.
write STDOUT;

[download]
The $: line is in there because perldoc says that it controls the characters on which format is allowed to split the line. However, it doesn't seem to prevent newlines being ignored if the lines in question are smaller than what the format will allow in a single line.

In the below fragment, the output comes out like this -- 

                
        ------------------------------------------------
        Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
        Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine
        flows into trees.
                                 -John Muir
        ------------------------------------------------

[download]
I would like it to be this -- 
                
        ------------------------------------------------
        Climb the mountains
        and get their good tidings.
        Nature's peace will flow into you
        as sunshine flows into trees.
                                 -John Muir
        ------------------------------------------------

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Multi-line Format problem
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 08, 2003 at 18:15 UTC

    The relevant passage of perlform is 

    Inside of an expression, the whitespace characters \n, \t and \f are c
+onsidered to be equivalent to a single space. Thus, you could think o
+f this filter being applied to each value in the format:

 $value =~ tr/\n\t\f/ /;

The remaining whitespace character, \r, forces the printing of a new l
+ine if allowed by the picture line.

    [download]

    You can achieve the output you want by translating the \n's to \r's 

    #!/bin/env perl -w
use strict;

my $cookie="Climb the mountains\nand get their good tidings.\nNature's
+ peace will flow into you\nas sunshine flows into trees.\n";
my $author="-John Muir\n";
$cookie =~ tr[\n][\r];
$: = "- ";
format STDOUT =
        @|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        "------------------------------------------------"
~~     ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
        $cookie
        @||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        $author
        @|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        "------------------------------------------------"
.
write STDOUT;
__END__
         ------------------------------------------------
       Climb the mountains
       and get their good tidings.
       Nature's peace will flow into you
       as sunshine flows into trees.
                         -John Muir
         ------------------------------------------------

    [download]

    Though a couple of other adjustments are required.

    Examine what is said, not who speaks.
    "Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
    "Think for yourself!" - Abigail
    Hooray!
    Wanted!

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      Thanks, that worked magnificiently!.

      However I notice something surprising -- if the width of the $cookie format line is increased beyond a certain limit ( 63 in the above example ), the last line is gobbled up completely when being printed!

      The perlform documentation says at the very end - "The remaining whitespace character, \r, forces the printing of a new line if allowed by the picture line.". Any idea if this is responsible for what's happening ?

      I can get by with adjusting the format width to the correct amount, but it would be nice to know the reason anyhow.

[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Multi-line Format problem
by TheDamian (Vicar) on Nov 08, 2003 at 22:30 UTC
    Alternatively, you could use the Text::Reform module: 
        use Text::Reform;

    print form
    "         -------------------------------------------------",
    "         [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[",
              $cookie,
    "         ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||",
              $author,
    "         -------------------------------------------------";

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]

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