1. substr $var, 1;

    perldoc -f substr for more info, on Unix

  2. s/\?.*//

    Seearch for: a literal question mark character, followed by any number of any characters; replace all that with: nothing ( i.e., delete it )

Proceessing input files line by line is the best way to do it, unless there are reasons for processing larger chunks. hint: most of the time, when you think you need to process larger chunks, what you really need is to find a different way of thinking about the process.

In the then clause, you chop( $qnum ), removing the last character. Or is this supposed to be the reverse-chop, from part 1? In any case, $qtext continues to end with a newline character.

In the else clause, you chomp( $qspec ). chomp() is like chop(), except it removes only the current $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR, $/, normally "\n". $qspec can't have a newline, since it comes from the middle of a line. But $x ends with a newline.

I would suppose using chomp() right after the while(), to trim newlines from all input.

Update: I forgot the most important part ... You left out "use strict;", and you should localize your variables with my.

--
TTTATCGGTCGTTATATAGATGTTTGCA

In reply to Re: Using perl interactively with VI by TomDLux
in thread Using perl interactively with VI by NovMonk

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.