Here's some meta-code that should show the logic of how I'd approach this:

my $in_combat = 0;
#open the file for input
LINE:
while (my $line=readline($input_file)) {
   if (# line contains start-combat flag) {
      $in_combat = 1;
   }
   next LINE if (!$in_combat);
   # do stuff with lines *during* combat--beginning and end will be he
+re, too!
   if (#line contains end-combat flag) {
      $in_combat = 0;
   }
}
# close files, etcetc

[download]

TIMTOWTDI, of course.

D Ruth Bavousett

In reply to Re: Split files based on regexp by druthb
in thread Split files based on regexp by TonySoprano

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