skip blank lines that may contain from time to time some ";"

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

Dear Monks, I am working with my Perl program on csv files. These csv files contained some information lines, gathered in blocks.

RWY_protection_1;80
-0.701399;44.840355
-0.698625;44.838375
-0.728149;44.817631
-0.730969;44.819683
-0.701399;44.840355

RWY_protection_2;80
-0.696316;44.826075
-0.697434;44.823624
-0.731108;44.830796
-0.730151;44.833011
-0.696316;44.826075


Restricted_area_protection_localizer_1;80
-0.734401;44.816223
-0.732972;44.815214
-0.734348;44.814279
-0.735763;44.815288
-0.734401;44.816223
[download]

Everything was OK until I made some modifications in my files and then there was some ";" instead of the blank lines. Thus my code did not work.

I don't know how to modify it so that even if some ";" appear (several per line), it will still work.

Here is a part of my code

while(my $line = <$FILE>){
    $line =~ s/\s+$//;
    if ($line =~ /(^\w+)/){
    ...
    }
}
[download]

Comment on skip blank lines that may contain from time to time some ";" Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: skip blank lines that may contain from time to time some ";" by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 01, 2009 at 17:04 UTC
`while(my $line = <$FILE>){ next if $line =~ /^\s(?:;\s)*$/; ... }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: skip blank lines that may contain from time to time some ";" by almut (Canon) on Jun 01, 2009 at 17:04 UTC
...and then there was some ";" instead of the blank lines. You mean like this? `... -0.701399;44.840355 ; RWY_protection_2;80 ...` [download] Then why not simply remove it before doing the other processing? `$line =~ s/^\s;\s$//;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: skip blank lines that may contain from time to time some ";" by John M. Dlugosz (Monsignor) on Jun 01, 2009 at 19:44 UTC
I think there is a CSV module in CPAN that handles everything, and has been updated through hard battles against files you have yet to dream about.	[reply]
Re: skip blank lines that may contain from time to time some ";" by perliff (Monk) on Jun 02, 2009 at 09:55 UTC
perhaps another way could be to only look at those lines that contain a number and ignore all other lines? ---------------------- -with perl on my side "If you look at the code too long, the code also looks back at you"	[reply]