Re^2: Parse data from a line to get 2 variables

Sorry if I was not clear :)

I have been approached by one of my customers to make an application
(script) that will take input from a file and print labels for them so
they do not have to enter them into the label printing program already
made, one by one. It gets tedious for them to do this for 100 lots for
instance.

What I need to do then is get LOT1 into the variable $lot and PRODUCT1
into the variable $prod. So while I have the loop going. I will then
take these variables and put them into another string of code I have to
output to a printer so they will print labels in a certain format with
the lotnumber and productname on them.

The format I will put this into to send to the printer is as follows:

        printCode = printCode & "^XA^LH30,30" & _
            "^FO110,65^A0,N,100^FD" & _
            lotNumber & "^FS" & _
            "^FO150,160^BY2,3.0^B3N,N,125,N,N^FD" & _
            lotNumber & "^FS" & _
            "^FO75,375^A0,N,50,30^FD" & _
            productName & "^FS" & _
            "^FO30,425^BY2,2.0^B3N,N,50,N,N^FD" & _
            productName & "^FS" & _
            "^XZ" & vbNewLine
[download]

I took this from teh main printing program that prints labels one at a
time. I believe this was either written in VB or C something. I will
have to substitute lotNumber for $lot and productName for $prod. Then
find teh correct syntax to send this to the printer and I have what I
need.

I have been working on thsi still while waiting on a reply. Do you think
this does it? (Gotta love it when you find the right words you were
looking for to search on google) LOL

#!c:\perl\bin

my $printCode = "";
my $lotNumber;
my $productName;
my $Info;
open (LABELS, "labellist.txt") or die "I could not get at labellist.tx
+t as input";


while (<LABELS>) {

    chomp;
    if (m%E%)
     {
#     print "$_\n";
#     print "\n";
     $Info=$_;
        $lotNumber=substr($Info, 0,8);
        $productName=substr($Info, 9);    
#        print "$lotNumber\n";
#        print "$productName\n";

        $printCode = "$printCode & \"\^XA\^LH30,30\" & _ \"\^FO110,65\
+^A0,N,100\^FD\" & _ $lotNumber & \"\^FS\" & _ \"\^FO150,160\^BY2,3.0\
+^B3N,N,125,N,N\^FD\" & _ $lotNumber & \"\^FS\" & _ \"\^FO75,375\^A0,N
+,50,30\^FD\" & _ $productName & \"\^FS\" & _ \"\^FO30,425\^BY2,2.0\^B
+3N,N,50,N,N\^FD\" & _ $productName & \"\^FS\" & _ \"\^XZ\" & vbNewLin
+e";

        print $printCode;
     }
}
[download]

Now I am not sure that the syntax to the $printCode is correct, but I
will get that down to a T sooner or later.

Comment on Re^2: Parse data from a line to get 2 variables Select or Download Code

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Re^3: Parse data from a line to get 2 variables by devnul (Monk) on May 13, 2006 at 00:48 UTC
He actually gave you the answer, more or less: `my ($lot,$prod) = m/(\S+)\s+(\S+)/;` [download] instead of: `$Info=$_; $lotNumber=substr($Info, 0,8); $productName=substr($Info, 9);` [download] I'm not sure what you are doing with the if(m%E%), but I presume that is for testing... Devnul	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Parse data from a line to get 2 variables by Sunnmann (Acolyte) on May 13, 2006 at 01:10 UTC
First of all, I want to thank you all for your help. This is awesome! You guys have come through for me every time I have asked for help and I appreciate it! So thank you very much and I am tipping my hat to all of you. And, yes it was for testing purposes, and at first I thought I may need to parse it by the type of lot# it was. But that was for nought. The main thing I do with Perl right now is change stuff I have to work in new situations, I get stuck alot while trying to learn. My mentor here at work left a while back and we dont use perl as much anymore so there has been no need for this until now when I write simple scripts to do some mundane stuff. I kind fo wish there was more need and i had the time to really get down and learn it. Anyways, enough of that, I did have another question. Could one of you write out in words what the below line is saying? Or point me to a good site that will tell me? m/(\S+)\s+(\S+)/	[reply]
Re^5: Parse data from a line to get 2 variables by Anonymous Monk on May 13, 2006 at 01:41 UTC
\S+ matches one or more non-whitespace characters \s+ matches one or more whitespace chars So my ($lot,$prod) = m/(\S+)\s+(\S+)/; is matching the lotnumber and putting it into $lot, matching the tab and throwing it away, then matching the product code and putting it into $prod	[reply]
Re^3: Parse data from a line to get 2 variables by bigmacbear (Monk) on May 13, 2006 at 00:45 UTC
You might do well to ask your customer if they have the Programmer's Reference Manual for the printer. Some manufacturers ship one with every box; others sell them separately or make them available on their web site. In order to find this in the latter case, you'll need the exact make and model of the printer on which the labels will be printed. Of course, if the manufacturer regards this as a trade secret or something, you'll probably be going back to the reverse-engineering approach you've outlined above.	[reply]