ok here is the first part of the text file. i need to extract the date from this

From: g027778@msx.stp.guidant.com
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 08:33
To: Steidl, Charles (STP); Gubbins, John (CLN); Horan, Laurence (CLN);
Duppong, Lawrence (STP); Donovan, Leighton (CLN); Deasy, Luke (CLN);
Walmsley, Mark (STP); Smith, Noel (CLN); Keating, Patrick (CLN); Doyle
+,
PJ (CLN); Heineman, Scott (STP); Maher, Stephen (CLN); Williams, Thoma
+s
(STP)(Test Eng); Nguyen, Thuan (STP)
Subject: ** Summary of yield for Product: Insignia__Hyb_E1

****  Yield Report  ****

****  Product Name        : Insignia__Hyb_E1_581394
****  Software Product    : 581394-201-A
****  Test Level          : Hyb_E1
****  Part Number         : 401666-312
****  Model Number        : h666
****  RMI DataBase        : prod
****  Analysis Date Range : 09/02/2009 00:00:00 to 09/02/2009 23:59:59
****  Tested First/Last   : 09/02/2009 02:06:04 to 09/02/2009 19:20:16
[download]

So, when you're looking for the date range, you can find the "Analysis Date Range", but then how do you decide what is the date coming after that?

I would say that you're looking for:

1. First, the string "Analysis Date Range : " with an arbitrary amount of whitespace around the ':' (/Analysis Date Range\s+:\s+/)
2. Then, at least one digit, which we want to remember (/([0-9]+)/)
3. Then, a slash (which needs a backslash to escape it) followed by at least one digit, and record the digits but not the slash (/\/([0-9]+)/)
4. Then, another slash followed by at least one digit, and again record the digits not the slash (/\/([0-9]+)/)
5. And the rest doesn't matter
Combining that all into one:

# i modifer to make it case insensitive, just in case.
if ($line =~ /Analysis Date Range\s*:\s*([0-9]+)\/([0-9]+)\/([0-9])+/i
+)
{
  print "I found an Analysis date with month/day $1, $2 in year $3\n";
}else{
  print "This line did not have an analysis date that I recognize in i
+t\n";
}
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Another way to go, would be to grab larger chunks and then split them later:

1. "Analysis Date Range : "
3. Then a pile of digits-and-slashes (start date) ([0-9\/]+)
4. Then whitespace and digits-and-colons (start time) \s([0-9:]+)
5. Then more whitespace and some digits-and-slashes (end date)
6. Finally, whitespace then digits-and-colons (end time)
PS: Is that date string "month day year" or "day month year"?


- SJ

How to make perldoc.perl.org resizable too!

thanks a million that is really helping. had to modify some part of it for strawberrie perl, no idea why. but its working alright. To do the next part should be something simular so i'll work away with that for the time being. thanks :-) p.s (this is for ZEN) And already said it to the manager and expectations are lowered but it'd be nice to get it done no? :-)

So you need to extract a date once which appears after Sent and keep this value and use it in combination with the Analysis Date Range for each report?

open (FILE, "<" ,"datafile");
my $sent_date="";
while (<>){
       my $this_date_range="";
       ($sent_date)=/^Sent: (.*)$/; #Could be more precise, but you're
+ only expecting one instance of Sent at the start of a line ?
       ($this_date_range)= /^\*{4}\s+Analysis Date Range\s+:\s(\d{2}\/
+\d{2}\/\d{4})/;
        add_to_spreadsheet($sent_date,$this_date_range);
}
[download]

So, half way there ;) Now you need to implement add_to_spreadsheet(); Answer the questions and use the module suggested initially, it's easy enough to use once you know the steps you intend to take.

thanks a mil again. both work and i'm using both for different things at the moment. Ye are a great help thanks it was all the /~.{{ etc that wre killing me. spot on!