Re^2: odd text object problem - how to store as string?

Sorry to be dense, but what is $obj in your example? I can't figure out why the "print Dumpfile..." clearly prints a text object but trying to save the returned object from Dumpfile gets me an empty value.

I have attached a short program which calls this in case anyone wants to try running it...

Thanks for the help

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use htmltoascii;
use strict;
use LWP::Simple;

my $url = 'https://archive.nrao.edu/archive/ArchiveRouter?SCAN_FILE_ID
+S=181828362';
my $content = get($url);
my $ascii = &htmltoascii::convert($content);
print "test is $ascii\n";
[download]

where I have changed the "convert" sub to:


sub convert {
    my $html = shift;
    
    my $t = HTML::TreeBuilder->new();
    $t->parse($html);
    $t->eof;
    
    my $obj = DumpTable( $_ ), $/, $/ 
    for $t->find_by_tag_name('table') ;
    return($obj);
}
[download]

Comment on Re^2: odd text object problem - how to store as string? Select or Download Code

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Re^3: odd text object problem - how to store as string? by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 24, 2011 at 22:40 UTC
Sorry to be dense, but what is $obj in your example? When I read `my $test = DumpTable(...` [download] I got confused and thought that was the Text::ASCIITable constructor. Of course, that's not the case, so what I said doesn't apply. Please avoid `my ... for ...;` [download] It straddles edge cases in Perl. `my ... if ...;` is not allowed, for example, and it's not clear what your code does. May I recommend `my $table = ( $t->find_by_tag_name('table') )[-1]; return DumpTable($table);` [download] If the find only returns one table, you can also use `my ($table) = $t->find_by_tag_name('table'); return DumpTable($table);` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: odd text object problem - how to store as string? by emmiesix (Novice) on Jun 25, 2011 at 00:15 UTC
Thanks, that makes sense now. Sorry for the bad form with the ellipses... I will be less lazy next time. I will need to learn more perl before I can understand some of these ways of writing constructors, destructors, etc. But your solution worked and I think I understand what's going on. Thank you!!	[reply]
Re^3: odd text object problem - how to store as string? by ~~David~~ (Hermit) on Jun 24, 2011 at 22:34 UTC
You are re-initializing $obj for every call to find_by_tag_name. You need to change your code to something like below: `sub convert { my $html = shift; my $t = HTML::TreeBuilder->new(); $t->parse($html); $t->eof; my $obj; $obj .= DumpTable( $_ ), $/, $/ for $t->find_by_tag_name('table') ; return($obj); }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]