Let's assume for the sake of argument that you want to create a CSV (comma-separated-value) file. The approach is to iterate through the lines of the flat-file database, converting each record into the desired otuput format (CSV).

Iterating through the lines of a file is fairly simple, just let perl's <> operator open the file for you:

# loop through every file named on the command line, setting
# $_ to each successive line
while (<>) {
  chomp;  # remove any line ending (implicitly uses $_)

  # ... aha! the interesting part goes here
  my @fields = split /\|/;  # implicitly uses $_

  # Now we have the values for this row in $fields[0], $fields[1], ...

  # write to STDOUT
  print join( ',', @fields ), "\n";
}

[download]

BTW, exclusive of anything related to Perl, Excel should be able to import this format directly (just name the file with a '.txt' extension and useExcel's Import Wizard), but I suspect that is not what you are asking.

Of course, you could simply translate '|' (pipe) characters into ',' (commas), but I suspect that, too, is not the point of your question.

dmm

You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day ...
Or, you can teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime

In reply to Re: Exporting from flatfile database by dmmiller2k
in thread Exporting from flatfile database by Nitroperl

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.