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

I am trying to figure out how to loop an entry from a flat database to be used in a drop-down selection. So, if my database looks something like this: 
company1|www.company1.com|absolute_path1
company2|www.company2.com|absolute_path2
company3|www.company3.com|absolute_path3
etc...

[download]
I only want the "company" pulled from the database and listed in the drop-down. Here's what I've done so far: 
#!perl
use strict;
use CGI;
$|=1;

my $db="g:/Scripts/Indigo/cgi-bin/company.db";
my $query=new CGI;
my $g_debug=0;
my $path='g:/Scripts/Indigo/cgi-bin/';

my $rc=0;
my ($u,$p);
my $userid=$query->param('userid');
my $url=$query->param('url');

# open the text database
    unless(open(PFD,$db))
    {
        &printError("Could not open user database");
        return;
    }
    
# first check if user exist
    $path='';
    while (<PFD>)
    {
        chomp;
        ($u,$p,$path)=split('\|',$_);###$u loop?? how?
        if ($userid eq $u)
        {
            $rc=1;
            last;

        }
    }
    close(PFD);


  print $query->popup_menu(-name=>'userid',
                            -values=>[$u]);## $u needs loop to pull al
+l company entries from $db

[download]
Thank you all for any help that you can give me.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Drop Down Selection #2
by suaveant (Parson) on May 08, 2001 at 21:28 UTC
    First of all, return doesn't work when you are not in a subroutine, so you probably want exit(1);

    You are already in a loop for $u... the while is a loop, what you should do is create an array, and push values of $u on it as you get them, so you would do 

    push @users, $u;

    [download]
    in your loop, that adds values of $u one by one to the array, appending them to the end. Then your call would look like 
    print $query->popup_menu(-name=>'userid',
                              -values=>\@users);## $u needs loop to pu
+ll all company entries from $db

    [download]
    at least, I think that is what you are asking for?
                    - Ant
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
      Ant, Thank you for your response to my question. I am still fairly new to CGI scripting, which is why I need to ask the following question: How should the script look with the push added? I've tried multiple ways of inserting the push but I keep getting a 500-Internal Error. I understand this completely: 
        print $query->popup_menu(-name=>'userid',
                            -values=>\@users);

      [download]
      But the part that has me stiffled, is this: 
      # open the text database
    unless(open(PFD,$db))
    {
        &printError("Could not open user database");
        exit(1);
    }
    
# first check if user exist
    $path='';
    while (<PFD>)
    {
        chomp;
        ($u,$p,$path)=split('\|',$_);###$u loop?? how?
        if ($userid eq $u)
        {
            $rc=1;
            last;

        }
    }
    close(PFD);

      [download]
      Thank you so much
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
        # open the text database
    unless(open(PFD,$db))
    {
        &printError("Could not open user database");
        exit(1);
    }
    my @users;
# first check if user exist
    $path='';
    while (<PFD>)
    {
        chomp;
        ($u,$p,$path)=split('\|',$_);###$u loop?? how?
        push @users, $u;
        if ($userid eq $u)
        {
            $rc=1;
            last;

        }
    }
    close(PFD);

    print $query->popup_menu(-name=>'userid',
                            -values=>\@users);

        [download]
        That should work, but in your code you do a last if $userid eq $u, which means @users will store all the users in the list until the one that matches $userid... not sure if that is what you want.
                        - Ant
[reply]
[d/l]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom