Typically, if it were just perl code, you could pass it to eval. In your case, it doesn't look like a simple array of arrays, as there are occurances of '][' in the file.

So, you would need to pass the string to some sort of parser that knows how to process that particular string. (I've never dealt with ESRI other than trying to install ArcView 6+years ago, so I have no idea what a suitable parser would be)

...

Also -- I don't know what the benefit was of changing your original message to match this one -- it might have been better to leave the original message intact, and post a followup in that same thread.

In reply to Re: Trying to use ESRI shapefiles (repost) by jhourcle
in thread Trying to use ESRI shapefiles (repost) by johnmc

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.