Nik has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question: 

   if ($onoma eq 'showlog')
   {
      $st = $db->prepare( 'SELECT * FROM logger' );
      $st->execute();

      while ( $row = $st->fetchrow_hashref )
      {
         print font( {-size=>4, -color=>'Lime'},   $row->{host},   " "
+x(40-length($row->{$host})) );
         print font( {-size=>4, -color=>'Cyan'},   "->     ",      $ro
+w->{xronos} );
         print font( {-size=>4, -color=>'Yellow'}, "     ->     ", $ro
+w->{game} );
         print br();
      }

      exit 0;
   }

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Hello Monks, Is there any other better way to write the above code? Especially the print statements, because i noticed that allthough i try to leave spaces between the vars when i run the code they are only leave one space. Why? Is printf an alternative for that?

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Re: spaces wont be displayed
by NetWallah (Canon) on May 24, 2004 at 22:43 UTC
    It looks like you are printing to a HTML page - that will eat all whitespace.

    To preserve space in HTML, use " " for each space.

    UPDATE:Ack ! The PerMonks web server ate up my Ampersand-n-b-s-p-semicolon that was supposed to show within quotes. Here is what that line was supposed to look like: 

    To preserve space in HTML, use  " " for each space.

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    Offense, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, and a fantasy.
    By guaranteeing freedom of expression, the First Amendment also guarntees offense.
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      A reply falls below the community's threshold of quality. You may see it by logging in.

      You could also use <pre>. Browsers aren't required to preserve whitespace but I haven't found one that doesn't.

      Owl looked at him, and wondered whether to push him off the tree; but, feeling that he could always do it afterwards, he tried once more to find out what they were talking about.

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Re: spaces wont be displayed
by cLive ;-) (Prior) on May 25, 2004 at 00:31 UTC
    In answer to your first and second questions combined: 
    # amend use CGI statement
use CGI qw/:standard *pre *font/;

# ...

      print start_font({-size=>4}).
            start_pre;
      while ( $row = $st->fetchrow_hashref )
      {
         printf("%-40s->     %s     ->     %s",
             font({-color=>'Lime'},$row->{host}),
             font({-color=>'Cyan'},$row->{xronos}),
             font({-color=>'Yellow'},$row->{game})
         ).
         "\n";
      }
      print end_pre.
            end_font;

# ...

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    cLive ;-)

    update: Actually, that won't *quite work as intended as the font tag is included when populating the %-40s. You'd need to change it to %-66s. Ouch, Hacky. Any reason you're not using a table? 

    my @Tr=();
while ( $row = $st->fetchrow_hashref )
    push @Tr, td([ font({-color=>'Lime'},$row->{host}),
                   '->',
                   font({-color=>'Cyan'},$row->{xronos}),
                   '->',
                   font({-color=>'Yellow'},$row->{game})
                 ]);
}
print table(
          Tr(\@Tr)
      );

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Re: spaces wont be displayed
by pbeckingham (Parson) on May 25, 2004 at 00:14 UTC

    Use &nbsp; for a non-breaking space, or &#160;.

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Re: spaces wont be displayed
by eclark (Scribe) on May 24, 2004 at 23:15 UTC

    In your anonymous hashref's for the font attributes, add in -style=>'white-space: pre'. I have not tested this, but it should work.

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Re: spaces wont be displayed
by Abigail-II (Bishop) on May 25, 2004 at 09:53 UTC
    Use a style sheet. Either to make it display spaces, or to create "boxes" of a desired width, which seems to be what you are after.

    Abigail

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