Dear Monks, I am an aeronautical engineer (structural) and I use a finite element analysis software called PATRAN/NASTRAN. After every analysis this software generates result files (text) with ".f06" extention. These files can be very large and many depending on the model that is being analysed.

When this software is used to analyse composite elements, it creates results for FAILURE INDICES, and prints results for each element and each ply.

I was using a perl program that was opening these files (280 MB) each and processing the files and extracting the information that I wanted in about an hour. The files were about 1.6 GB in size. Then someone found this FORTRAN program that does the same thing in about ten minutes.

I just can not understand what it is doing so differently that it does the job much faster than my perl program does.

my code is something like this: 

open file

while(<FH>){

extract info, 
print,
}
close FH;

[download]
and here is an example section from one one of the .f06 files: 
  11150505   STRAIN      1            1.0088   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0369                                               
1                                                                     
+        MARCH  10, 2003  MSC.NASTRAN  5/15/00   PAGE  8077
     2011-ULTIMATE,_UP_BM,_-55,_MINP                                  
+                                                              
0                                                                     
+                                       SUBCOM 2011            
 
          F A I L U R E   I N D I C E S   F O R   L A Y E R E D   C O 
+M P O S I T E   E L E M E N T S   ( Q U A D 4 )
   ELEMENT  FAILURE    PLY   FP=FAILURE INDEX FOR PLY    FB=FAILURE IN
+DEX FOR BONDING   FAILURE INDEX FOR ELEMENT      FLAG
     ID      THEORY     ID  (DIRECT STRESSES/STRAINS)     (INTER-LAMIN
+AR STRESSES)      MAX OF FP,FB FOR ALL PLIES
                         2            0.0000   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.0630                                               
                         3            0.9486   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0914                                               
                         4            0.0000   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.1108                                               
                         5            0.0172   -1 
                                                                      
+ 0.1108                                               
                         6            0.0000   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.0914                                               
                         7            0.5449   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0630                                               
                         8            0.0000   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.0369                                               
                         9            0.4847   -12
                                                                      
+                               1.0088             *** 
  11150506   STRAIN      1            0.4050   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0339                                               
                         2            0.0000   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.0577                                               
                         3            0.4086   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0831                                               
                         4            0.4104   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1043                                               
                         5            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1179                                               
                         6            0.4140   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1306                                               
                         7            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1374                                               
                         8            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1408                                               
                         9            0.4195   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1408                                               
                        10            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1374                                               
                        11            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1306                                               
                        12            0.4249   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1179                                               
                        13            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1043                                               
                        14            0.4285   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0831                                               
                        15            0.4303   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0577                                               
                        16            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0339                                               
                        17            0.4340   -12
                                                                      
+                               0.4340                 
1                                                                     
+        MARCH  10, 2003  MSC.NASTRAN  5/15/00   PAGE  8078
     2011-ULTIMATE,_UP_BM,_-55,_MINP                                  
+                                                              
0                                                                     
+                                       SUBCOM 2011            
 
          F A I L U R E   I N D I C E S   F O R   L A Y E R E D   C O 
+M P O S I T E   E L E M E N T S   ( Q U A D 4 )
   ELEMENT  FAILURE    PLY   FP=FAILURE INDEX FOR PLY    FB=FAILURE IN
+DEX FOR BONDING   FAILURE INDEX FOR ELEMENT      FLAG
     ID      THEORY     ID  (DIRECT STRESSES/STRAINS)     (INTER-LAMIN
+AR STRESSES)      MAX OF FP,FB FOR ALL PLIES
  11150507   STRAIN      1            0.2949   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0455                                               
                         2            0.0001   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0792                                               
                         3            0.3250   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1133                                               
                         4            0.3400   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1418                                               
                         5            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1610                                               
                         6            0.3701   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1781                                               
                         7            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1877                                               
                         8            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1925                                               
                         9            0.4152   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1925                                               
                        10            0.0000   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.1877                                               
                        11            0.0000   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.1781                                               
                        12            0.4603   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1610                                               
                        13            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1418                                               
                        14            0.4903   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1133                                               
                        15            0.5054   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0792                                               
                        16            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0455                                               
                        17            0.5354   -12
                                                                      
+                               0.5354                 
  11150508   STRAIN      1            0.2814   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.0564                                               
                         2            0.0001   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.0981                                               
                         3            0.2392   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.1404                                               
                         4            0.2181   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.1757                                               
                         5            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.1995                                               
                         6            0.1759   -2 
                                                                      
+ 0.2207                                               
                         7            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.2326                                               
                         8            0.0000   -12
                                                                      
+ 0.2386                                               
1                                                                     
+        MARCH  10, 2003  MSC.NASTRAN  5/15/00   PAGE  8079
     2011-ULTIMATE,_UP_BM,_-55,_MINP

[download]

20030524 Edit by Corion: Added READMORE tag

In reply to Fast reading and processing from a text file - Perl vs. FORTRAN by ozgurp

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