HTML::Table is a very handy module that gives you a table object which you can manipulate for a while before finally printing it out.

The rows and columns in a HTML::Table are counted on a grid, starting at 1,1. Cells that span several columns and/or rows do not disturb the count:

+---+---+---+---+---+
|1/1|2/1|3/1|4/1|5/1|
+---+---+---+---+---+
|1/2|2/2|3/2|4/2|5/2|
+   +---+---+---+---+
|   |2/3|3/3    |5/3|
+---+---+---+---+---+
|1/4|2/4|3/4|4/4    |
+---+---+---+       +
|1/5|2/5|3/5|       |
+---+---+---+---+---+

Here's my test-data:

csc,tech,base
csc,comp,acm
csc,mous,base
new,this,that
other,some,sing
other,some,sels
[download]

And the program:

use SuperSplit;
use HTML::Table;

$data = supersplit_open( ',', 'table.txt');
[download]

I first generate an array that holds the first column, in my example that's (csc,csc,csc,new,other,other). From that I compute a seconde array that hold the count of the words in the first column, here this is (3,0,0,1,2,0). (I bet someone here could turn this into a one-liner <kbd>;-)</kbd>

@firstcol = map { $$_[0]  } @$data;
@numbers = (1) x scalar(@firstcol); # init to (1,1,1,...)

for ($i = $#firstcol; $i > 0; $i--) {
        if ($firstcol[$i] eq $firstcol[$i-1]) {
                $numbers[$i-1] = $numbers[$i]+1;
                $numbers[$i] = 0;
        }
}
[download]

Then I generate the plain table (without spanning cells)

$table = new HTML::Table;
$table -> setBorder(2);
foreach $row (@$data) {
        $table->addRow( @$row );
}
# $table->print;
[download]

And finally I walk down the first column and set the spanning:

foreach $rowno (0..$#firstcol) {
    if ($numbers[$rowno]) {
        $table->setCellRowSpan($rowno+1, 1, $numbers[$rowno]);
        $table->setRowVAlign($rowno+1, "TOP")
    };
}

$table->print;
[download]

The output of the program:

csc	tech	base
	comp	acm
	mous	base
new	this	that
other	some	sing
	some	sels

Links and typos fixed june 11, thanks to jeffa

--
Brigitte    'I never met a chocolate I didnt like'    Jellinek
http://www.horus.com/~bjelli/         http://perlwelt.horus.at

---

In reply to Re: printing a table in html using data read from a text file by bjelli
in thread printing a table in html using data read from a text file by videogamer06

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