problem with evaluating first line in a file

baxy77bax has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

i have this problem that has been troubling me for a while but it never cosed any real problems till now

my $line;
while(<LINES>){                                  
    if (m/^--/){   
           push (my @data, [$id,$line]);                 
           $self->_loaddb(table => 'TABLE',
                          data=>\@data);
                                               
           $line= undef;                              
           $id++;                                  
    }                                            
    else{                                        
        chomp(my $string = $_);                    
        $line.=$string;                            
    }                                            
}




##########


file.txt


--1
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
jhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjhjjjj
--2
kkkkkkkkkkjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj 
ljdfsdhgdhgkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
rrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
--3
ffffffffffffffffffffffff
ggggggggggggggggggggggg
fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
-- 


##################

table 

------------------------
|  ID      |   Line    |
|----------|-----------|
|  123     |   null    |
|----------|-----------|
|  878     |   kkkkk...|
|----------|-----------|
...
[download]

so from the code you can see that for the first run in while loop it loads(function for loading data into db) id into table with $line variable empty. so far this wasn't a problem but since the table has been changed in a way that it doesn't support null values for lines any more, this became a problem :)

any suggestions how to import this file?

thnx

Update:

THNX , getting a bit rusty and lazy !

Comment on problem with evaluating first line in a file Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: problem with evaluating first line in a file by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 09, 2009 at 15:09 UTC
What would you like to happen? Drop empty records, while incrementing the id? Drop empty records, without incrementing the id? Insert an empty string for empty records?	[reply]
Re^2: problem with evaluating first line in a file by baxy77bax (Deacon) on Mar 09, 2009 at 15:23 UTC
"Drop empty records, without incrementing the id" would be ideal but it really doesn't matter , because first id is a random number anyway.	[reply]
Re^3: problem with evaluating first line in a file by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 09, 2009 at 15:32 UTC
`my $line; while(<LINES>){ if (m/^--/){ if (defined($line)){ my @data = ( [ $id++, $line ] ); $self->_loaddb(table => 'TABLE', data => \@data); $line = undef; } } else{ chomp; $line .= $_; } }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: problem with evaluating first line in a file by kennethk (Abbot) on Mar 09, 2009 at 15:12 UTC
The easiest solution would be the check if your string is defined prior to upload, a la: `while(<LINES>){ if (m/^--/){ push (my @data, [$id,$line]); if (defined $line) { $self->_loaddb(table => 'TABLE', data=>\@data); } $line= undef; $id++; } else{ chomp(my $string = $_); $line.=$string; } }` [download] Update: Or, if you want to "Drop empty records, without incrementing the id", you could `while(<LINES>){ if (m/^--/){ next unless defined $line; push (my @data, [$id,$line]); $self->_loaddb(table => 'TABLE', data=>\@data); $line= undef; $id++; } else{ chomp(my $string = $_); $line.=$string; } }` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]