js1 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

There has got to be an easier way in perl to get a certain number of words from a line in a string than my code below. Could anyone quickly help me out?

Thanks,

js. 

$_="2003-12-20 22:13:58 11 12.37.2.215 407 TCP_DENIED 4294968543 93 GE
+T http ping.180solutions.com http://ping.180solutions.com/ - N
ONE - -";
@F=split(/\s+/);
foreach $i (0 .. 10){
        $front.="$F[$i] ";
}
foreach $i (11 .. 15){
        $back.="$F[$i] ";
}
print "\nFRONT=$front";
print "\nBACK=$back";

[download]

20040615 Edit by Corion: Changed title from 'subword'

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: get a certain number of words from a line
by Tomte (Priest) on Jun 15, 2004 at 13:48 UTC

    array-slices are simpler and easier to read: 

    $front = join (' ', @F[0..10]);
$back = join (' ', @F[11..15]);

    [download]
    hth

    regards,
    tomte

    An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
    -- Albert Camus

[reply]
[d/l]
      Or, 
      $front = "@F[0..10]";
$back = "@F[11..15]";

      [download]

      --
      [ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

[reply]
[d/l]

      Bless you tomte!

      Thanks,

      js1.

[reply]
Re: get a certain number of words from a line
by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Jun 15, 2004 at 14:27 UTC 
    my ($front, $back) = /((?:\S+\s+){11})((?:\S+\s+){5})/;

    [download]
    ought to work. I don't have perl5 where I am to test it.
    We're not really tightening our belts, it just feels that way because we're getting fatter.
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: get a certain number of words from a line
by sleepingsquirrel (Chaplain) on Jun 15, 2004 at 17:59 UTC 
    $_=$l="how now brown cow hay is for horses oats are for goats mary lit
+tle lamb";

#maybe a little inefficient, but no temp variables, all one line
($f,$b)=(join('',(split)[0..10]), join('',(split)[11..15]));

#is there a better way to compose functions? golfers?
($f,$b)=map {join('',(split(/\s+/,$l))[@$_])}([0..10],[11..15]);

    [download]
    Update: Changed the 2nd snippet above so it doesn't depend on an obscure bug in 5.8.0. For the record you should use array references instead of list refs.
[reply]
[d/l]
      You seem to be under the impression that 
      \(0..10)

      [download]
      is the same as 
      [0..10]

      [download]
      Update: It appears that they are the same for this particular case, which is (IMO) a Bad Idea, since the \() construct is already a not-uncommon source of confusion. Why was it considered important to make \(something) behave like [something] iff something is a range?
      We're not really tightening our belts, it just feels that way because we're getting fatter.
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        I'm under the impression that \(0..10) is a reference to an 11 item list (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10). And further more, I'm under the impression that... 
        $ref=\(1..10);
@a[@$ref];

        [download]
        ...is an eleven item array slide of @a, which happens to be equivalent to @a[0..10]. Try it, you might like it ;)
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

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