Better description of my concatenating problem

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

What I have is a text file with the following text that repeats but the data is different:

Subject: Lab Test Log #1946
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 10:56:15 -0500 (CDT)
From: JUDY F <judyf@elgiloy.com>
To: HAMPSHIRE - KUR <hampsc@combmet.com>

FAILED HV HRD.
I'LL CONT. TEST @ SHERRY'S
CLAY, UNLESS I HEAR FFM. YOU.
THANKS JUDY

ELP - HAMPSHIRE(21)                                           06-01-00
+  10:54:34
JUDY F TERM # 171     LAB TEST LOG - LAB #1946                       P
+AGE #  1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+----------
Date In        05-30-00 1:00pm
In Initials    JF
Lab Test Type  Final
Tag #          116014
Customer
In Comments    RTR 10342
               COIL B
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+----------
Status         Non-Conforming
Date Out       06-01-00 10:52am
Out Initials   JF
Lot Code       H88231C
Out Comments   @.0075 T 102538 Y 39121 E 70% HRD.83 HRB
               (*159HV1KG)7RA B 3.48 DL .25 @ S.L.PER
               SUS. IGA /DOES NOT MEET WARD HV HRD.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
+----------
** ORDERS **
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+----------
21 12136-1    COMBINED METALS OF CHICAGO
[download]

The code that I have to read this file is the following:

#!/bin/perl

$delimiter = ",";
$i=0;
while(<>)
{
 chomp;
 if ($_ =~ /^Subject:/){
    @subject[$i] = $_;
    @subject[$i] =~ s/^Subject:(\D+)(\d+)/$2/e;
    }
 ...
 ... (more if statements to select what I need)
 ... (the concatenating part between the words
      "Out Comments" and "----") 

 if ($_ =~ /^Lot Code/){
    @lotCode[$i] = $_;
    @lotCode[$i]=~ s/^Lot Code(\s+)(\w+)/$2/e;
    $i++;
    }
open OUTPUT, ">>data.txt";

# $allvar=join(',', $tag,$lotCode);
# $result=$allvar;
}
for ($j=0; $j < $i; $j++)
{
  print OUTPUT "@subject[$j];@failed[$j];@monthi[$j]/@dayi[$j]/@yeari[
+$j];@routerval[$j];" .
        "@tag[$j];@montho[$j]/@dayo[$j]/@yearo[$j];@lotCode[$j];@comme
+ntso[$j]\n";
  print "@subject[$j];@failed[$j];@monthi[$j]/@dayi[$j]/@yeari[$j];@ro
+uterval[$j];" .
        "@tag[$j];@montho[$j]/@dayo[$j]/@yearo[$j];@lotCode[$j];@comme
+ntso[$j]\n";
}
[download]

Ok, how do I concatenate the lines between "Out Comments" and the first "----"? Thank you

Comment on Better description of my concatenating problem Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Better description of my concatenating problem by I0 (Priest) on Feb 22, 2001 at 04:05 UTC
`$concat .= $_ if /^Out Comments/ .. /^----/`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Better description of my concatenating problem by a (Friar) on Feb 22, 2001 at 10:54 UTC
Well, more perlish way to do some of this: `if ( /^Subject:\D+(\d+)/ ){ # if you can be sure of the '#' before the digits, use this # if ( /^Subject:.#(\d+)/ ) not that it buys you much push @subject, $1; next; } # if /subject ...` [download] push is much better than your $i++ which may be getting messed up, the way your snippet looks. I'm guessing your open(OUTPUT ... is supposed to be outside the while {...}. Not as snazzy as the ever terse, er, tidy io's suggestion, but: `if ( /\sOut Comments\s(.)$/ ) { push @out_comments, $1; while (<>) { # quit on a blank line or ------- last if /^\s$/ or /^\s[-]+\s$/; s/^\s//; # get rid of spaces at the beginning push @out_comments, $_; } next; } # if /Out Comments/` [download] not the 'strictest' of methods (re-while-ing the <> is frowned on by pendants) but if you're confident of your data format, it works. I get the impression you expect only one msg per email, so your arrays aren't needed, so scalars might be better (that is, $i is usually ends up '1'). Just do "$subject = $1;" and "$out_comment .= $_;" for the inner while loop. You'll avoid typos by: `$output_str = "@subject[$j];@failed[$j];@monthi[$j]/@dayi[$j]/@yeari[$ +j];@routerval[$j];" . "@tag[$j];@montho[$j]/@dayo[$j]/@yearo[$j];@lotCode[$j];@com +mentso[$j]\n"; # or, if you've gone to scalars $output_str = "$subject;$failed;$monthi/$dayi/$yeari;$routerval;" . "$tag;$montho/$dayo$/$yearo;$lotCode;$commentso\n"; print OUTPUT $output_str; print $output_str;` [download] And, last but definitely not least; perl -w/use strict, if you're gonna use the tools, use them safely. You'll be glad you did later on. a	[reply] [d/l] [select]