Re^3: delete above matching line?

For bigger files:

my @out;
my $print = 1;
while (<>) {
  if (m/^start_of_block/) {
    $print = 0;
    pop @out
     if @out and $out[-1] eq $/; # removes previous empty line
  }

  push @out, $_ if $print;

  if (m/^};/) {
    $print = 1;
  }

  print shift @out if $print and 1 < @out;
}

# UPDATE: based on oldmanwillow reply:
# print @out;
print @out if $out[-1] =~ /^\s*$/ ;
[download]

Comment on Re^3: delete above matching line? Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^4: delete above matching line? by oldmanwillow (Novice) on Jul 01, 2010 at 16:34 UTC
This almost works, and I like it much better than reading the whole file into a string. Thanks! The only problem is that as it is, the script leaves a trailing newline if the deleted block is the last in the file. Probably my fault for not specifying that the blocks run to the end of the file. The fix is simply to change the last `print @out ;` to `print @out if $out[-1] =~ /^\s*$/ ;`	[reply] [d/l] [select]