in reply to RFC: Text::FixedWidth

I will find it very useful and would like to have it, if you do two things:

  1. Allow me to specify file format through XML, not coding.
  2. Provide a simpler interface than those existing modules. All what I expect is really simple - be able to parse the file automatically into certain data structure, don't make it too complex. Excessive functionality is not always better, and might easily break modulization.

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Re^2: RFC: Text::FixedWidth
by runrig (Abbot) on Jul 26, 2005 at 22:07 UTC
    Allow me to specify file format through XML, not coding.

    You mean something like: 

    use XML::Simple;
use Parse::FixedLength;

my $x = XMLin(<<XMLEND);
<format>
<field>
  <fname>fld1</fname>
  <length>10</length>
</field>
<field>
  <fname>fld2</fname>
  <length>20</length>
</field>
<field>
  <fname>fld3</fname>
  <length>30</length>
</field>
</format>
XMLEND

my $fmt = [ map { "$_->{fname}:$_->{length}" } @{$x->{field}} ];

my $p = Parse::FixedLength->new($fmt);

    [download]

    Somehow I doubt you mean this, but you gotta start somewhere...(and I'm not clear on how XML makes this any better)

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