in reply to Error using grep

The following sample may or may not fix your immediate problem (you've not given enough information for me to be able to tell), but it will avoid a whole slew of problems in the future:

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

print "Enter the filename to be parsed\n";
my $fileName = <STDIN>;

print "Enter the keyword to be searched in the file\n";
my $keyword = <STDIN>;

chomp $fileName;
chomp $keyword;

open my $inFile, '<', $fileName or die "Failed to open $fileName: $!\n
+";

# Search for the key pattern in the file information.
while (defined (my $line = <$inFile>)) {
    chomp $line;
    next if $line ne $keyword;
    
    print "Found key word $keyword on line $.\n";
    exit;
}

print "Keyword not found\n";

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Always use strictures (use strict; use warnings;).

Always use three parameter open, lexical file handles (using my) and check the result from open.

Use chomp not (ever) chop.

Don't slurp files into an array - use a while loop instead.

Note that this may no work for you because it expects to match the entire line against the key word. If you just want to see if the line contains the key word then use the regular expression $line =~ /\Q$keyword\E/ or the expression 0 <= index $line, $keyword (although there are problems with both of these test too, depending on what you actually want to match).

True laziness is hard work

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Re^2: Error using grep
by justkar4u (Novice) on Mar 29, 2011 at 02:16 UTC
    Hi, Sorry for not being clear earlier. I do want to search for any keyword(mostly alphabetical words) and if present in that line , I need to display the entire line.Line may have spaces or special characters. I do not know how to use the boundary conditions. I tried using {/\b\Q$key\E\b/} or outside the {\b/\Q$key\E/\b} but either of them dint work. I also read about using /p to preserve the prematch ,match and post match expressions but I got this error :Illegal division by zero at ./test1.pl line 14, <STDIN> line 2. for entering zmm keyword.
[reply]
[d/l]

      You need to show the actual code you tried. Much, much better is to rework your code into a stand alone test script so we can run exactly what you are running with the same data. Something like:

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

my $keyword = 'file';

# Search for the key pattern in the file information.
while (defined (my $line = <DATA>)) {
    next if $line !~ /\b\Q$keyword\E\b/;
    
    print "Found key word $keyword on line $.\n";
    exit;
}

print "Keyword not found\n";


__DATA__
Hi, I am a newbie to perl. I am trying to pass the filename and search
+ for a
keyword in that file and if found print that line else print not found
+ message.
However though my file has the keyword I get not found message.Please 
+help.I

      [download]

      Prints:

      Found key word file on line 2

      [download]
      True laziness is hard work
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[d/l]
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        Here's the entire code and the file which I am giving as input for parsing. 
        #!/usr/bin/perl
# main program;
use strict;
use warnings;
print "Enter the filename to be parsed\n";
my $file = <STDIN>;
open (DATA,$file); 
print "Enter the keyword to be searched in the file\n";
chomp(my $key = <STDIN>);
# Search for the key pattern in the file information.
while (defined (my $line = <DATA>)) {
    next if $line !~ /\b\Q$key\E\b/i;
    print "$line\n";
}

print "Keyword not found\n";

        [download]
        -----------------------------------------file------------- This file is already created by some other script. Now I want to search for a key say "xyz" in this case and print the ENTIRE LINE containing the key and its status etc. The above code or my previous code works fine except that it also prints the "keyword not found" msg even after finding and printing the keyword and its line!! How do I get rid of that. I tried using else statement but it prints the "key not found" msg for all the other lines(i mean multiple times). 
          Controller Version Information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   BIOS                                     : 0.2-0 (18298)
   Firmware                                 : 0.2-0 (18298)
   Driver                                   : 0.1-7 (28000)
   Boot Flash                               : 0.2-0 (18298)
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Controller xyz Information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Status                                   : xyz Optimal

        [download]
        Also I am doing this to give the user more flexibility in searching for any key in any input file and print the entire line not line number for his/her reference..Thanks for your help in advance . - Ram
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[d/l]
[select]

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