if ($table->cell($rownum, 0..2) =~ /\xa0/) {
    s/\xa0\d+/ /;
} else {
    s/\xa0//;
}

[download]

Will the above substitutions replace the desired pattern with the the desired..er..pattern? What I mean is, do I need three seperate if/else control structures to do the above successfully, or is doing the above the same as using $_ =~ s/.../../;

Is there a more elegant way of doing this?

Update: Heh, thanks GrandFather. Not really sure why I confused loops and control constructs.

Update2: I'll post more code to lessen the confusion. I forgot that most monks cannot read my mind.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use HTML::TableExtract;
use DBI;

my $te = HTML::TableExtract->new();
$te->parse_file("arbitraryname.html");
my $table = $te->first_table_found;

my @totalrows;
push @totalrows, $_ foreach $table->rows();

my (@title, @teach, @aides);
foreach my $rownum (0..$#totalrows) {
        # A cell can be called by $table->cell(row,column)
        if ($table->cell($rownum, 0..2) =~ /\xa0/) {
           s/\xa0\d+/ /;
        } else {
            s/\xa0//;
        }
    push @title, $table->cell($rownum, 0) ? $table->cell($rownum, 0) :
+ '';
    push @teach, $table->cell($rownum, 1);
    push @aides, $table->cell($rownum, 2) ? $table->cell($rownum, 2) :
+ '';
}

foreach my $ele (0..$#title) {
    print "$title[$ele] - $teach[$ele] - $aides[$ele]\n"; # Testing ou
+tput before I uncomment database section
        =for comment
        # inserting into a database, etc
        =cut
}

[download]

Update3: Ok, now for the whole story.

I am parsing through an html table converted from a pdf file that listed names and job titles. What makes this annoying is that each table cell contains more than one name, and not every row has a job title. Example: 

<html><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
+><tbody><tr><th align="center" height="24" valign="middle" width="171
+">Boss </th><th colspan="2" align="left" height="24" valign="middle" 
+width="421">Firstname Surname </th></tr><tr><td align="center" height
+="23" valign="middle" width="171">Secretary </td><td colspan="2" alig
+n="left" height="23" valign="middle" width="421">Name Surname, Mr Jon
+es Smith </td></tr><tr><td align="center" height="23" valign="middle"
+ width="171">Medical Doctor </td><td colspan="2" align="left" height=
+"23" valign="middle" width="421">Bob&nbsp;Middlename Hope </td></tr><
+tr><td align="center" height="23" valign="middle" width="171">Positio
+n 1 </td><td align="center" height="23" valign="middle" width="202">W
+orker </td><td align="center" height="23" valign="middle" width="219"
+>Secretary </td></tr><tr><td height="45" valign="top" width="171"></t
+d><td align="left" height="45" valign="top" width="202">Asdf Ghjk </t
+d><td align="left" height="45" valign="middle" width="219">Name Lastn
+ame, First Last </td></tr><tr><td height="68" valign="top" width="171
+"></td><td align="left" height="68" valign="top" width="202">Sally&nb
+sp;Mally </td><td align="left" height="68" valign="top" width="219">J
+oe Smoe, The Who, Will Timberland </td></tr><tr><td align="center" he
+ight="23" valign="middle" width="171">Position 2 </td><td align="left
+" height="23" valign="middle" width="202">Paula Simon </td><td align=
+"left" height="23" valign="middle" width="219">Raymonde Maalouf </td>
+</tr></html>

[download]

The file follows the format, with three columns, one for the title of the position, then a persons name(s), then that person's secretary(ies). I am trying to extract all three elements (all two elements for the first few) and insert them into a database as such:

    my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:$dbname:$dburl", "$dbuser", "$db
+pass") or die "Could not connect";
    my $sth = $dbh->prepare("INSERT INTO $dbtable (position, name, ema
+il) VALUES (?, ?, ?)") or die "Could not prepare";
    $sth->execute($position, $name, $email) or die "Could not execute"
+;
    $sth->finish();
    $dbh->disconnect;
}

[download]

With the above example, please note that the position will either be Position 1, or Position 1 Secretary, depending on the column, and that the real position name is random. Also note that I can generate their email address easily, and is unrelated to the problem. I just wanted to include that if anything came up.

Oh, and just remembered, the regex is there to strip the &nbsp;'s and replace them with a space if it is before the last name, or nothing if it is at the end of the name (I meant to use /...\w/, not /...\d/). I used \xa0 at the time of writing because that is what I thought I had to strip (today is not my day :\).

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

chomp; # nom nom nom

In reply to Will a substitution in an if/else control structure default to $_? by Lawliet

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