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

Hi all, I need to remove entries in a txt file. The entries to remove, must start with a pattern /phn/ then end on /1ord/. e.g 
# input phn
..
..
# 1ord

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Used the following: 
if (/phn_a/ ... /1ord/) {
     print OUT $_;      }

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But this prints out the first finding of phna_ through to first 1ord. 5 lines separate these patterns in the text file Tried this also, but this seems to starts printing from a poisiton i dont expect it to: 
$nLines = 5 if ( /1ord$/  );
     print OUT if $nLines-- > 0;

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Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: extracting lines
by neniro (Priest) on Jul 02, 2004 at 10:38 UTC
    Try unless instead of if. 
    print OUT unless (/phn_a/ .. /1ord/);

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    UPDATE: more detailed: 
    #!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

while (<DATA>) {
  print unless (/phn/ .. /1ord/);
}

__DATA__
black
# input phn
blue
red
green
# 1ord
yellow
white

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[d/l]
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      this appears to print everything in the file, no change
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        sorry just seen the update
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