Now THAT is a reply that I can sort-of follow...and understand by doing some additional reading...you've added some functionality that was to be part 2, such as time taken.

However, could you possibly provide a clue on how I'd:
1) Restrict the search for just the text/code within the range between the "--begin--" and "--end--" comment markers? Because there could be some HTML that might follow the pattern used for a signature in the headers/footers of the web page. I think I know, but maybe there's a better way.

2) In the sample I gave, I used the "Comment #" as pplaceholders of what could be there...in fact, at that point, there could be anything from one word to 25+- lines of user feedback/reply, so the word "Comment" can't be searched for. The start of a user comment block does always begin with a "HR" tag, followed by a "B" tag, but there could be one or more spaces/CR/LF's between them. So what might be appropriate for that test? I could rework history to put starting HR tag of each comment on line by itself, if that would make it easier.

3) Once a matching USER is found, what I need to do is dump that guestbook entry (delimited by "HR" tags) to a results web page that I'll build on-the-fly, so that's why I believe I'll have to scan the hYYMM.htm files on a line-by-line basis, at least with the skills that I posess now. I presently scan the HTML guestbook file with current months entries looking for "--begin--" tag to find location of where to add newest comment, so I have some clue on how that would be done.

BTW, the code you gave me already saved me MANY hours of research time, so THANKS a LOT!

In reply to Re^2: Search function for guestbook history? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Search function for guestbook history? by JCHallgren

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.