A slightly different, but not necessarily better, way would be to count the pipes using tr, like this

my $numps = ($homes =~ tr{|}{});

[download]

and then find the "middle" one's position by using index in a loop

my $middle = int($numps / 2) + 1;
my $pos = -1;
my $found = 0;
while (1)
{
    $pos = index $homes, q{|}, $pos;
    last if ++ $found == $middle;
    $pos ++;
}
substr $homes, $pos, 1, q{<BR>};

[download]

As you say, it is fun trying these things out. As for checking return values, I should perhaps check that index doesn't return -1 and that substr does return the pipe that I think I'm replacing; if this was production code I probably would :)

Cheers,

JohnGG

In reply to Re^2: Turning a hash into a line of links by johngg
in thread Turning a hash into a line of links by OfficeLinebacker

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