An example of the dataset is provided in the parent node of that thread. And a description of my proposed solution is provided within that thread as well.

The solution will need to be reworked a bit if the assumptions I made (and documented) in my original solution aren't accurate. In particular, I would be concerned with how records are delimited, and the exact order of lines within each record. But with those caviets, the solution should work as long as the user massages it to find the right line within each record.

If I had the solution to write again, given the ambiguity of the original dataset, I might grep each record to find the element on which the sort criteria is based, instead of indexing into is (which assumes a fixed and known position). Then I would split the results of the grep and build my ST data-structure in that way. It would be slower to set up each ST (because grepping a six-element record is slower than indexing its 4th element), but it would be more robust and less likely to break if records change size in the future.

All,

Thanks so much for all the help--I now have everything working! I needed some extra hand-holding for this one because a lot of the suggestions provided to me were a little (okay, some a lot :-) outside of my perl vocabulary.

Here's a final description of the problem, with working code to follow (below).

Thanks again to all.

Regards,
-Chris

The problem: sort a large file of text formatted like so:



Clock: fci_rx_clk
Pin:   clkgate_i/peaz_gate7/S_5/Y
Net:   fci_rx_clk
Operating Condition     = worst
The clock global skew   = 0.290
The longest path delay  = 4.328
The shortest path delay = 4.038
The longest path delay end pin:  co_8port_i\/peaz_i/LOCKUP4/GN
The shortest path delay end pin: co_8port_i\/peaz_i/fci_i/dec_i\/bmcf_
+INST\/slice03_INST\/b_reg[5]/CK

Clock: aai_tx_clk
Pin:   clkgate_i/peaz_gate1/S_5/Y
Net:   aai_tx_clk
Operating Condition     = worst
The clock global skew   = 0.192
The longest path delay  = 3.430
The shortest path delay = 3.237
The longest path delay end pin:  co_8port_i\/peaz_i/aai_i/aai_test_2_a
+ai_tx_clk_sgb_2_inst/ff1/CK
The shortest path delay end pin: co_8port_i\/peaz_i/aai_i/aai_test_2_a
+ai_tx_clk_sgb_0_inst/ff1/CK

Clock: aai_rx_clk
Pin:   clkgate_i/peaz_gate2/S_5/Y
Net:   aai_rx_clk
Operating Condition     = worst
The clock global skew   = 0.349
The longest path delay  = 3.996
The shortest path delay = 3.647
The longest path delay end pin:  co_8port_i\/peaz_i/LOCKUP/GN
The shortest path delay end pin: co_8port_i\/peaz_i/aai_i/atm_path_i\/
+rx_path_i\/rxpram_reg_i\/ar_hec_cnt_reg[3]/CK
[download]


...by the "skew" value for each clock. The end result should display all the text in the same format--e.g. 9 lines for each clock--only in a new order. Here is the code to accomplish that...



open (SUM2,">$ARGV[0].sum.sorted");

my @records;
{
        local $/ = /\n\n/;
        open IN2, "$ARGV[0].sum" or die "Cannot open data file.\n$!";
        while ( my $record = <IN2> ) {
                my @kv_pairs = split /\n/, $record;
                push @records, [@kv_pairs];
        }
        close IN2;
}

print STDERR 'Record count: ', scalar @records;

my @sorted_recs = map { $_->[0] }
                  sort { $a->[1] <=> $b->[1] }
                  map { [ $_, (split /=\s+/,$_->[4])[1] ] }
                  @records;

foreach my $records ( @sorted_recs ) {
        foreach my $record ( @{$records} ) {
                print SUM2 $record;
        }
        print SUM2 "\n";
}

close (IN2);
close (SUM2);
[download]

I entirely agree with your point of view. I might have found it myself if I knew where this question was coming from.

CountZero

"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law