As already noted, splitting based on whitespace is a faulty assumption in your algorithm, assuming company names have whitespace in them.

This, in my experience, is a common error for someone parsing a log for the first time so don't feel bad.  :-) I prefer to parse logs based on predictable components. The more wild the potential format, the more complicated the code gets, but for a relatively simple format like the one you are suggesting, I think it's fairly straightforward (assuming you have a basic understanding of Regular Expressions).

You have to craft your Regular Expression to match the data you are expecting. A technique I have become fond of is the use of an ifstatement, which provides the additional feature of filtering out lines that don't match my preconceived format. I often capture those out to another file for occasional review to see if the parsing routine needs to compensate for previously unknown formats or conditions. I won't do that in this example so we can save space. 

C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-10-27@0838-Log-Parse>type test1.log
GOOD Acme Toy Company 2010-01-01 2011-12-31
BAD XYZZY 1972-01-01 1972-06-18
UGLY Enron 2001-10-01 2011-09-11

C:\Steve\Dev\PerlMonks\P-2013-10-27@0838-Log-Parse>parselog.pl test1.l
+og

[download]

Status Company Name Start Date End Date
GOOD Acme Toy Company 2010-01-01 2011-12-31
BAD XYZZY 1972-01-01 1972-06-18
UGLY Enron 2001-10-01 2011-09-11 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# ---------------------------------------------------------------
# Parse log with following format:
# Status  Company Name Start Date End Date
#
# Assumptions:  Status contains no whitespace
#               Dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format
#               Company names have nothing that looks like a date
# ---------------------------------------------------------------

foreach my $inpfnm (@ARGV)
{
    if (!open INPFIL, '<', $inpfnm)
    {
        print "ERROR:  Cannot open input file '$inpfnm'\n";
    }
    else
    {
        print "<HTML>\n";
        print "<BODY>\n";
        print "<TABLE BORDER>\n";
        print "  <TR>\n";
        print "    <TH>Status</TH>\n";
        print "    <TH>Company Name</TH>\n";
        print "    <TH>Start Date</TH>\n";
        print "    <TH>End Date</TH>\n";
        print "  </TR>\n";
        while (my $inpbuf = <INPFIL>)
        {
            chomp $inpbuf;
            if ($inpbuf =~ /^(\w+)\s+(.+)\s+(\d{4}\-\d{2}\-\d{2})\s+(\
+d{4}\-\d{2}\-\d{2})\s*$/)
            {
                my $inpsts = $1;
                my $inpnam = $2;
                my $stadat = $3;
                my $enddat = $4;
                print "  <TR>\n";
                print "    <TD>$inpsts</TD>\n";
                print "    <TD>$inpnam</TD>\n";
                print "    <TD>$stadat</TD>\n";
                print "    <TD>$enddat</TD>\n";
                print "  </TR>\n";
            }
        }
        close INPFIL;
        print "</TABLE>\n";
        print "</BODY>\n";
        print "</HTML>\n";
    }
}

exit;

__END__

[download]

In reply to Re: Parsing Text from a File to HTML Table by marinersk
in thread Parsing Text from a File to HTML Table by anupchandu

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