although your input looks like fixed width, it may be tab separated. in any case, as long as columns don't run into each other, you can use the whitespace to delimit fields on input. Furthermore, to make the work of selecting on values in columns....rather than implementing this yourself...try a module like DBD::CSV or such. then you merely write SQL to select what you want and process it.
the hardest line to type correctly is: stty erase ^H

In reply to Re: How to monitor a logfile with columns for certain data? by aquarium
in thread How to monitor a logfile with columns for certain data? by freddiel

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