Transforming a scalar to an array

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

Suppose you have this input:

line1
line2
line3
line4
line5
[download]

And the following code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

my $file = shift;

local( $/, *INPUT );
open(INPUT, $file);
$input = <INPUT>;

print $input;
[download]

Is there a way to transform that $input scalar into an array? I realize that local( $/, *INPUT ); gets rid of the new lines. I also don't have any special separators in my actual input (my "real" input is a lot like this "fake" input, except that its MIME encoded, and I decode it using MIME::QuotedPrint::Perl. Which by the way, is why I'm doing local( $/, *INPUT ); in the first place.. I have to read the whole MIME-encoded file into a scalar to decode it. Can't read it in line by line because of that. :/ )

I just want to iterate through $input line by line and do something with each..so, somehow, I need to turn it into an array :)

Any thoughts/suggestions/solutions welcome!

Comment on Transforming a scalar to an array Select or Download Code

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Re: Transforming a scalar to an array by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jul 15, 2009 at 14:59 UTC
`#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; chomp( my @input = <> );` [download] Update: Oh, it seems you aren't reading from a file handle as you showed. `chomp( my @input = split(/^/m, $input) );` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Transforming a scalar to an array by davorg (Chancellor) on Jul 15, 2009 at 15:04 UTC
I realize that `local( $/, INPUT );` gets rid of the new lines.* It doesn't actually. You end up with a scalar that still has a newline at the end of each line of text. You can, of course, use that to your advantage. `my @lines = split /\n/, $input;` [download] -- See the Copyright notice on my home node. Perl training courses	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Transforming a scalar to an array by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jul 15, 2009 at 15:19 UTC
That's different from `<>` in that it will trim trailing blank lines (which is probably fine) and chomp all lines (which is probably fine).	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Transforming a scalar to an array by Anonymous Monk on Jul 15, 2009 at 15:07 UTC
sure, use split now you just have to know where to split, since you don't have any newlines..	[reply]
Re^2: Transforming a scalar to an array by AnomalousMonk (Archbishop) on Jul 15, 2009 at 16:44 UTC
... since you don't have any newlines. But the newlines are all still there: they are embedded within the single string that represents the data read from the entire file.	[reply]
Re: Transforming a scalar to an array by vxp (Pilgrim) on Jul 15, 2009 at 15:57 UTC
Thanks, all! All's well now	[reply]