in reply to Text file processing question

Two lines should do the job: 

#! perl -slw
use strict;

print "Name of consumer  Subdivision  Amount   Type of work Phase";

printf "%-14s %14s %7.2f %-14s %-s\n",
    m[(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s+(.+)\s+(\S+)$]
    while <DATA>;

__DATA__
Nancy   Location1      600.00      New service  Single
Stella   Location2     1000.00  Replacement Single
Julie      Location3        400.00  Replacement Three
Debbie    Location4    800.00   New service Three

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Re^2: Text file processing question
by perl_seeker (Scribe) on Aug 13, 2009 at 12:35 UTC
    :) This is really cool.

    Way to go BrowserUk. Thanks a lot. I now have to get down to the business of understanding the regular expression.

    perl_seeker
[reply]
      I now have to get down to the business of understanding the regular expression.

      There's not much to it really. Essentially the input file consists of 5 groups of non-whitespace characters interpersed with whitespace.

      The only fly in that ointment is the 4th field which itself contains whitepace, and so prevents trival parsing with split. Luckily, as only one field contains multiple words, we can let the regex engine sort it out for us. Ask it for the first 3 whitespace delimited fields, and the last one. And the fourth field is everything left over.

      You might find it clearer expanded out like this: 

      m[
    ( \S+ ) \s+
    ( \S+ ) \s+
    ( \S+ ) \s+
    ( .+  ) \s+
    ( \S+ ) $
]x

      [download]
      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]
[d/l]
        What if more than one field contains multiple words ?

        In fact now i have multiple words in more than one field: 
        Nancy Drew   Elm Street      600.00      New service  Single
Stella Barry  Pine Avenue     1000.00  Replacement Single
Julie Green   Palm Street        400.00  Replacement Three
Debbie Brown  Baker Avenue      800.00   New service Three

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        perl_seeker
[reply]
[d/l]

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