Counting characters in a string

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

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Re: Counting characters in a string by duff (Parson) on Feb 06, 2004 at 14:41 UTC
`my $str = "this is just a test\nthis is another test\nthis is yet anot +her test\n"; $str =~ s/(.{5})/$1\n/sg; print $str;` [download] But that actually outputs: `---start output--- this is ju st a test this is an other test this is y et an other test ---end output---` [download] Which isn't what your example showed, but is what you asked for. duff	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Counting characters in a string by Sol-Invictus (Scribe) on Feb 06, 2004 at 15:15 UTC
In other words you want to wrap your string ? `#!perl-w use Text::Wrap; $string = "this is just a test\nthis is another test\nthis is yet a no +ther test\n"; $Text::Wrap::columns = 4; print wrap('', '', $string);` [download] Sol-Invictus _{You spend twenty years learning the spell that makes nude virgins appear in your bedroom, and then you're so poisoned by quicksilver fumes and half-blind from reading old grimoires that you can't remember what happens next.}	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Counting characters in a string by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Feb 06, 2004 at 14:39 UTC
`my $c_per_line = 5; print "$1\n" while ($string =~ /(.{0,$c_per_line})/sg);` [download] Update: added "0," so that the match would include the final few characters. The PerlMonk `tr///` Advocate	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Counting characters in a string by valentin (Abbot) on Feb 06, 2004 at 14:40 UTC
`print map { "$_\n" } $string =~ /.{1,5}/g;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Counting characters in a string by ysth (Canon) on Feb 06, 2004 at 16:02 UTC
That will stop at every newline and continue again after it: `$ perl -we'$string = "abcdef\nghijk\nlmno\npqr\nst\nu"; > print map { "$_\n" } $string =~ /.{1,5}/g;' abcde f ghijk lmno pqr st u` [download] You either want the //s flag on the match or some other way of dealing with newlines.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Re: Counting characters in a string by valentin (Abbot) on Feb 06, 2004 at 16:15 UTC
thanks, you are right `//s` is fine for me.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Counting characters in a string by duff (Parson) on Feb 06, 2004 at 15:06 UTC
Here's another method if you're running perl 5.8.0 or better: `$str = "this is just a test\nthis is another test\nthis is yet another + test\n"; open F, "<", \$str or die; # open a handle to our string $/ = \5; # Read 5 characters at a time while (<F>) { # Read 'em! print "$_\n"; }` [download] duff	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Counting characters in a string by arden (Curate) on Feb 06, 2004 at 14:43 UTC
Wow, this smells like homework. :) Anyway, you could split the string into an array of single characteres and print off each element within a loop adding a "\n" every five characters. You could use substr and print five character slices plus a "\n" until you get to the end of the string. You could make a format, but that's not as fun IMHO. So, what have you tried so far TASdvlper?	[reply]
Re: Counting characters in a string by ysth (Canon) on Feb 06, 2004 at 16:28 UTC
I'm not sure what you are expecting when you have a newline in the input. From your example, it would seem that you want to put a backslash and 'n' in the output, or perhaps to put a newline in the output and have it count as perhaps either one or two characters. If what you want is the former, this is how I would do it (it will escape all other non-printable characters as well). `$ perl -w my $string = "this is just a test\nthis is another test\nthis is yet a +nother test\n"; use Data::Dumper; { local $Data::Dumper::Terse = 1; local $Data::Dumper::Useqq = 1; local $, = "\n"; print substr(Dumper($string),1,-2)=~/.{1,5}/gs; } __END__ this is ju st a test\ nthis is a nothe r tes t\nth is is yet anoth er te st\n` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Golf?: Counting characters in a string by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Feb 06, 2004 at 16:01 UTC
perl -pe'$_=join"\n",/.{0,5}/g' Update 20040205 @ 1020 US/CST: or perl -pe's/(.{1,5})/$1\n/g' which is even shorter... Christopher E. Stith	[reply]
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