Printing Array to a file

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

Hello All,

When we print array elements to a file (please refer the code below), by default space character is placed as the delimiter between the array elements.

Is there a direct way/variable where we can specify the delimiter to separate the array elements.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

open my $fh, '>', 'array.out' or die "Could not create the file.\n";
my @array = ('one','two','three','four','five');
print $fh "@array";
close $fh;
[download]

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Re: Printing Array to a file by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 27, 2010 at 08:00 UTC
Yes, there is, `$"`. See perlvar. Also, it is good practise to limit all changes you make to `$"` to a small block by using local: `{ # output as tab delimited: local $" = "\t"; print $fh "@array\n"; } # $" has its old value here again` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Printing Array to a file by chromatic (Archbishop) on Jan 27, 2010 at 08:02 UTC
The global variable `$"` contains the separator, though it's often clearer to use join: `use 5.010; # this has the same effect as... { local $" = ', '; say {$fh} @array; } # a shorter approach say {$fh} join ', ', @array;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Printing Array to a file by Ratazong (Monsignor) on Jan 27, 2010 at 08:00 UTC
Hi try `$, = "YourSeperator";`. see Perl Special Variables Quick Reference. Rata Update After looking at the responses by Corion and chromatic: `my @x= (1,2,3,4,5); print @x; # uses $, print "@x"; # uses $"` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Printing Array to a file by ambrus (Abbot) on Jan 27, 2010 at 09:46 UTC
Alternately use the join function such as `print $fh join(":", @array);` [download] or print a delimiter after each element (even after the last) of the array with a for loop like `print $fh $_, "\n" for @array;` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Printing Array to a file by johngg (Canon) on Jan 27, 2010 at 11:15 UTC
or print a delimiter after each element (even after the last) of the array with a for loop like You can still use the join idiom rather than choosing a loop. `print $fh join qq{\n}, @array, q{};` [download] I hope this is of interest. Cheers, JohnGG	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Printing Array to a file by paragkalra (Scribe) on Jan 27, 2010 at 08:16 UTC
Thanks to all.	[reply]