Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters

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

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Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by Tanktalus (Canon) on Feb 25, 2005 at 19:34 UTC
To solve your problem without answering the question: `my @fields = split /\\|/, $line;` [download] Using regexps is possible, but, given your requirements, sounds like the wrong solution. Something like this would work, but I'd still suggest split. `my @a = $line =~ /([^\\|]+)\\|?/g;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Feb 25, 2005 at 19:30 UTC
.* is greedy. You want .*? Alternately, you might want to look at split() instead of a regex. Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing. Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid. Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence. Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.	[reply]
Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by RazorbladeBidet (Friar) on Feb 25, 2005 at 19:34 UTC
Either you can try: `my @results = $string =~ /(.?)\\|/g` or `my @results = $string =~ /([^\\|])\\|/g` or `my @results = split /\\|/, $string` -------------- It's sad that a family can be torn apart by such a such a simple thing as a pack of wild dogs	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by JediWizard (Deacon) on Feb 25, 2005 at 19:42 UTC
You could also use Text::CSV_XS. It is designed for comma seperated data, but you can set the character to be used as a seperator to what ever you want. That would even handle data like: `some field\|another field\|"field with \| in it"\|more fields` [download] May the Force be with you	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Feb 25, 2005 at 20:47 UTC
Text::xSV is better as it handles more edge cases. Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing. Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid. Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence. Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.	[reply]
Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by jZed (Prior) on Feb 25, 2005 at 19:38 UTC
You might want to check out AnyData or DBD::AnyData which handle pipe-separated files with either a tied-hash or a DBI/SQL interface. BTW, they aren't delimiters - delimiters go around things; they are separators - separators separate things the way the pipes separate the fields in your example.	[reply]
Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by sh1tn (Priest) on Feb 25, 2005 at 19:48 UTC
An excerpt from perldoc: `An example: $s1 = $s2 = "I am very very cold"; $s1 =~ s/ve.y //; # I am cold $s2 =~ s/ve.?y //; # I am very cold` [download] perldoc -q regex perldoc perlre	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Feb 25, 2005 at 21:00 UTC
Your regular expressions are probably matching too much, and I'm guessing that you are seeing some pipe characters in the stuff in $1 and so on. You want to make the quantifiers non-greedy so they stop matching when they find the thing that comes after them. `@matches = m/(.*?)\\|/g;` [download] But you might want split() `@matches = split m/\\|/;` [download] As for reading characters into a variable, if you are reading from a filehandle, read() may be what you are after. If you are getting the characters from another scalar, you probably want substr() and index(). See the perlfunc page for the details. Good luck! -- brian d foy <bdfoy@cpan.org>	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Grabbing anything between pipe delimiters by Marcelo (Initiate) on Feb 25, 2005 at 21:32 UTC
What about `$s = "Johnathan Company\| 2.33 \|-2.5\|Jeremiah\|-5"; @a = split /\\|/, $s; # Use $a[0], etc.` [download]	[reply] [d/l]