I been trying to fixup web intergration of an OLD MS-DOS system, that uses fixed record length files ascii text files to store data.

the file im trying to convert is located at http://www.mscorp.org/bksic.txt

my desired output is to take every field defined except those labeled as trash in my perl code, and cut the spaces off the front and end then but a pipe between each field. and save the output fo a file.

Any advise would help. My perl code is below.

#LOAD REQUIRED PACKAGES & SET GLOBAL VARIABLES

$file = "bksic.txt";
$outfile = "bksic.out";

#READ & PARSE STOCK INVENTORY CONTROL

#DEFINE FIELDS

@BKSIC_MFG = ();
@BKSIC_MODEL = ();
@BKSIC_SPEC1 = ();
@BKSIC_SPEC2 = ();
@BKSIC_SPEC3 = ();
@BKSIC_SPEC4 = ();
@BKSIC_OPT1 = ();
@BKSIC_OPT2 = ();
@BKSIC_OPT3 = ();
@BKSIC_OPT4 = ();
@BKSIC_DESC = ();
@BKSIC_QOH = ();
@BKSIC_TRASH1 = ();
@BKSIC_MULT = ();
@BKSIC_TRASH2 = ();
@BKSIC_LIST = ();
@BKSIC_TRASH3 = ();

#OPEN, READ & PARSE DATAFILE

open(DATAFILE,"<$file") || die "I can NOT open $file please fix the pr
+oblem!\n";
@products = ();
while ($line=<DATAFILE>) {
    if ((substr($line, 3, 50)) !~ /COMPONENT PARTS/) {
    push (@products, $line);
    }
}
close (DATAFILE);
$i = 0;
        foreach $line (@products){
                ($BKSIC_MFG[$i]) = substr ($line, 0, 3) =~ m/^\s*(.*)\
+s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_MODEL[$i]) = substr ($line, 3, 50) =~ m/^\s*(.
+*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_SPEC1[$i]) = substr ($line, 53, 7) =~ m/^\s*(.
+*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_SPEC2[$i]) = substr ($line, 60, 7) =~ m/^\s*(.
+*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_SPEC3[$i]) = substr ($line, 67, 7) =~ m/^\s*(.
+*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_SPEC4[$i]) = substr ($line, 74, 7) =~ m/^\s*(.
+*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_OPT1[$i]) = substr ($line, 81, 6) =~ m/^\s*(.*
+)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_OPT2[$i]) = substr ($line, 87, 6) =~ m/^\s*(.*
+)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_OPT3[$i]) = substr ($line, 93, 6) =~ m/^\s*(.*
+)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_OPT4[$i]) = substr ($line, 99, 6) =~ m/^\s*(.*
+)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_DESC[$i]) = substr ($line, 105, 55) =~ m/^\s*(
+.*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_QOH[$i]) = substr ($line, 160, 4) =~ m/^\s*(.*
+)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_TRASH1[$i]) = substr ($line, 164, 41) =~ m/^\s
+*(.*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_MULT[$i]) = substr ($line, 205, 6) =~ m/^\s*(.
+*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_TRASH2[$i]) = substr ($line, 211, 23) =~ m/^\s
+*(.*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_LIST[$i]) = substr ($line, 234, 7) =~ m/^\s*(.
+*)\s*$/;
                ($BKSIC_TRASH3[$i]) = substr ($line, 241, 169) =~ m/^\
+s*(.*)\s*$/;
                $i++;
        }
open(DATAFILE,">>$outfile") || die "I can NOT open $outfile please fix
+ the problem!\n";
$i = 0;
$x = @products;
while ($i <= $x) {
        print DATAFILE "$BKSIC_MFG[$i]|$BKSIC_MODEL[$i]|$BKSIC_SPEC1[$
+i]|$BKSIC_SPEC2[$i]|$BKSIC_SPEC3[$i]|$BKSIC_SPEC4[$i]|$BKSIC_OPT1[$i]
+|$BKSIC_OPT2[$i]|$BKSIC_OPT3[$i]|$BKSIC_OPT4[$i]|$BKSIC_DESC[$i]|$BKS
+IC_QOH[$i]|$BKSIC_TRASH1[$i]|$BKSIC_MULT[$i]|$BKSIC_TRASH2[$i]|$BKSIC
+_LIST[$i]|$BKSIC_TRASH3[$i]|\n";
        $i++;
}
close (DATAFILE);
[download]

---

---

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! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

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:
	&		&
	<		&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.