Re: The best way to split tab delimited file

if the comma is a fixed aspect of this file, then

@fields = split (/[^,]\t/,$record)
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would probably do what you need, but BioLion's suggestion above might make your life easier further down the road, as more "little quirks" emerge in the data

Comment on Re: The best way to split tab delimited file Download Code

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Re^2: The best way to split tab delimited file by johngg (Canon) on Nov 16, 2009 at 23:29 UTC
By placing the comma in a negated character class you lose any character preceding the tab, apart from a comma, in the resultant array because it becomes part of the split term. Placing the comma in a negative zero-width look-behind, as gmargo does here, the characters are retained. `$ perl -le ' > $txt = qq{abc\tdef,\tghi\tjkl\tmno}; > print for split m{[^,]\t}, $txt; > print q{-} x 20; > print for split m{(?<!,)\t}, $txt;' ab def, gh jk mno -------------------- abc def, ghi jkl mno $` [download] I hope this is of interest. Cheers, JohnGG	[reply] [d/l]

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Re^2: The best way to split tab delimited file
by johngg (Canon) on Nov 16, 2009 at 23:29 UTC

By placing the comma in a negated character class you lose any character preceding the tab, apart from a comma, in the resultant array because it becomes part of the split term. Placing the comma in a negative zero-width look-behind, as gmargo does here, the characters are retained.

$ perl -le '
> $txt = qq{abc\tdef,\tghi\tjkl\tmno};
> print for split m{[^,]\t}, $txt;
> print q{-} x 20;
> print for split m{(?<!,)\t}, $txt;'
ab
def,    gh
jk
mno
--------------------
abc
def,    ghi
jkl
mno
$
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I hope this is of interest.

Cheers,

JohnGG

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[d/l]