Wildcards and Files

pyro.699 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello, You know in dos, you can search for a file by typing *.* or *.txt, using * as a wildcard? well, im trying to do the same thing with my perl script. I did atempt this and got this far:

$file = $ARGV[0];
$find = $ARGV[1];
$replace = $ARGV[2];

@split = split(/\./, $file);
opendir(DIR, ".");

if ($file = /\*\.\*/) 
{
    @format = grep(/\./, readdir(DIR));            #    *.*
}
if ($file = ".\.\*")
{ 
    @format = grep($split[0]./\../, readdir(DIR));    #     test.*
}
if ($file = "\*\..")
{    
    @format = grep(/.\./.$split[1], readdir(DIR));        #    *.txt
}
if ($file = ".\..")
{
    @format = grep($split[0]./\./.$split[1], readdir(DIR));    #    te
+st1.txt
}

$file_count = 0;
for $file (@format)
{
...
}
...
[download]

I cannot get it working quite right, i want the user to have the ability to use one of the following: *.* *.ext file.* file.ext Thanks a ton ~Cody Woolaver

Comment on Wildcards and Files Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Wildcards and Files by imp (Priest) on Apr 04, 2007 at 00:16 UTC
use glob `@files = glob("*.txt");` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Wildcards and Files by ferreira (Chaplain) on Apr 04, 2007 at 09:50 UTC
Like imp said, first you expand the globs with glob function and then you do what you want with the result you got. `my @files = glob('.'); # or 'test.' or '.txt' for my $file (@files) { # ... }` [download] As you mentioned DOS wildcards, maybe the semantics of glob that comes from Unix does not match exactly what you want. Then you should take a look at File::DosGlob. Another sidenote: `$file = /\\.\/` and `$file = ".\.\"` won't work. You're using the '=' operator when you'll want '=~' (match operator) or 'eq' (string comparison). But even so, `$file =~ /\\.\/` will match more than you want, like 'a.b' and so `$file eq '.*'` would be preferred.	[reply] [d/l] [select]