Using elements to search a file

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

I'm trying to take input from a form ($string), look up that in a file ($inputs), get every space-separated entry on the line behind the $string, and put them in an array (@contractors).
All of that works fine.
The next step is to take the elements of that array, and look each one up in a second file ($continputs), and print out the results.
This is where I'm having the problem.

#!perl -w
use strict;
use CGI qw(:standard escapeHTML);

#############
print header(), start_html("Search Results");
############

my $string = param("submit_zip");
my $inputs = 'zip-acc.txt';

open( my $in, '<', $inputs) or die "can't open $inputs.\n";

while ( <$in> ) { 
    if ( $_ =~ m/^$string(.*)/ ) 
    { 
        print "$1\n"; 
    print br;
    print br;
    my @contractors = split(m#\s+#, $1);
        my $continputs = 'acc-addy.txt';
        my $contractors;
        foreach $contractors(@contractors)        
            {
            open( my $contin, '<', $continputs) or die "Cannot open $i
+nputs.\n";

            while ( <$contin> ) 
                    { 
                    if ( $contractors =~ m/^$string(.*)/ )     
                        { 
                    my @results = split(m#\s+#, $1);
                    print br;
                    print @results;
                        }
                     }
            close( $contin );
                }
    }
    }
close( $in ); 

############
print end_html();
############
[download]

Comment on Using elements to search a file Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Using elements to search a file by jpearl (Scribe) on May 06, 2009 at 17:29 UTC
Well, you separate out: `my @contractors = split(m#\s+#, $1);` [download] where `$1` is actually everything after `$string`. But then you try in your `while( <$contin> ) {` loop `if ( $contractors =~ m/^$string(.)/ )` Depsite the fact that `@contractors` has already been regexed away from `$string`. Its hard to visualize without seeing some example input and output you are after, but you might not want to be matching `$string` multiple times like that, especially if `$contractors` is just an element of the array of stuff after* `$string`.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Using elements to search a file by GC (Initiate) on May 06, 2009 at 17:55 UTC
Example: User input: 11111 Will find this line in the first file: 11111 1010101 1010102 1010103 1010104 1010105 1010106 Which puts: 1010101 1010102 1010103 1010104 1010105 1010106 into an array. Each of those will be used as search criteria in the second file, the irst should read this line: 1010101 Address Line 1 ,Address Line 2 ,Phone Number ,Fax Number, So I can print the information. If that makes sense.	[reply]
Re^3: Using elements to search a file by jpearl (Scribe) on May 06, 2009 at 18:23 UTC
That does make sense. However, I think your problem is in this loop: `while ( <$contin> ) { if ( $contractors =~ m/^$string(.)/ ) { my @results = split(m#\s+#, $1); print br; print @results; } } close( $contin ); }` [download] Specifically I think you're running into a problem at `if ( $contractors =~ m/^$string(.)/ )` [download] It looks like what you want to be doing is matching every line in `$contin` against your current `$contractor` where what you're actually doing is matching `$contractor` against your regex `^$string(.)` Try changing the above regex in the while loop to have something like `while ( <$contin> ) { if ($_ =~ m/^$contractor(.)/) { my @results = split(m#\s+#, $1); print br; print @results; } } close( $contin ); }` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Using elements to search a file by GC (Initiate) on May 06, 2009 at 18:33 UTC
Re: Using elements to search a file by Narveson (Chaplain) on May 06, 2009 at 16:23 UTC
What happened when you ran this code?	[reply]
Re^2: Using elements to search a file by GC (Initiate) on May 06, 2009 at 16:26 UTC
The part I'm having issues with doesn't return anything at all.	[reply]