Modify a txt file

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

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Re: Modify a txt file by Eliya (Vicar) on Oct 20, 2011 at 01:04 UTC
One way to do it: `#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; local $/ = ""; # paragraph mode while (<DATA>) { my ($num) = /^(\d+)/; s/\w+/$num/g; print; } __DATA__ 0 ASDF ASEE ASEE 13 DERG DREG 28 QWER QWER 42 WERT WERT WERT 55 QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD` [download] (note that `$/ = ""` is not the same as `$/ = undef`, see perlvar)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Modify a txt file by GrandFather (Saint) on Oct 20, 2011 at 00:54 UTC
You tell me what the real application for such a transformation is and show me the code you have tried and I'll help you get it right. I'm not about to write what looks like a homework answer for you however. And if it's not homework then you've probably simplified the problem to the point of meaninglessness. Update: Oh, I see this probably relates to something you have been working on for a few days and most likely isn't Perl homework. Maybe it's time you filled us in on the bigger picture so we can help with a cohesive overall solution rather than drip feeding little parts of a solution as you run into trouble? True laziness is hard work	[reply]
Re: Modify a txt file by davido (Cardinal) on Oct 20, 2011 at 05:08 UTC
If you look at each grouping as a record, and set the input record separator to "\n\n" (which is what appears to separate the records in your example), it gets really easy: `use strict; use warnings; $/ = "\n\n"; while ( <DATA> ) { if( my( $number ) = m/(\d+)/ ) { s/\b\p{Alpha}+\b/$number/g; } else { warn "Malformed record in input line $.\n$_\nContinuing.\n"; } print; } __DATA__ 0 ASDF ASEE ASEE 13 DERG DREG 28 QWER QWER 42 WERT WERT WERT 55 QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD` [download] Here is the output from your test data: `0 0 0 0 13 13 13 28 28 28 42 42 42 42 55 55 55 55 55` [download] Dave	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Modify a txt file by la (Novice) on Oct 20, 2011 at 05:51 UTC
Wow! Thanks everyone for all of the help! I will work on it and let you know how it goes. Thanks again :)	[reply]
Re^2: Modify a txt file by la (Novice) on Oct 20, 2011 at 06:37 UTC
Hey Dave, Thanks for the advice. Although I am using your code, I am not getting the correct output... Code I am using: `#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; if($#ARGV<0){ die "Usage: $0 <*.txt>\n"; } open(IN,$ARGV[0]) ; $/ = "\n\n"; while ( <IN> ) { if( my( $number ) = m/(\d+)/ ) { s/\b\p{Alpha}+\b/$number/g; } else { warn "Malformed record in input line $.\n$_\nContinuing.\n"; } print; }` [download] Input: `0 ASDF ASEE ASEE 13 DERG DREG 28 QWER QWER 42 WERT WERT WERT 55 QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD` [download] Getting this output: `0 0 0 0 13 0 0 28 0 0 42 0 0 0 55 0 0 0 0` [download] Desired Output: `0 0 0 0 13 13 13 28 28 28 42 42 42 42 55 55 55 55 55` [download] I see that it is in this line s/\b\p{Alpha}+\b/$number/g; where the substitution is being made. Is the code referring back to the original 0 in the top left hand column perhaps?	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Modify a txt file by GrandFather (Saint) on Oct 20, 2011 at 07:34 UTC
The code you posted works as advertised by davido. Consider: `use strict; use warnings; my $data = <<DATA; 0 ASDF ASEE ASEE 13 DERG DREG 28 QWER QWER 42 WERT WERT WERT 55 QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD DATA open my $inFile, '<', \$data; $/ = "\n\n"; while (<$inFile>) { if (my ($number) = m/(\d+)/) { s/\b\p{Alpha}+\b/$number/g; } else { warn "Malformed record in input line $.\n$_\nContinuing.\n"; } print; }` [download] Prints: `0 0 0 0 13 13 13 28 28 28 42 42 42 42 55 55 55 55 55` [download] so there is a mismatch between what you are telling us and what you are actually doing. If you really want help you need to really tell us what you are doing and show us (as per the sample code above) how things are going wrong. We can't fix what ain't broke! True laziness is hard work	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Modify a txt file by davido (Cardinal) on Oct 20, 2011 at 06:56 UTC
Why do you suppose this is happening? Have you taken any steps besides posting to figure out why the solution isn't working for you? When debugging it's often helpful to check the state of the program's logic at one or more points. An easy way to do this is with "print" statements that give you clues as to where you are within the program's control flow. For example, if you added a `print "Record: $.\n";` statement as the first line of the block of your `while()` loop you would see each time the loop iterates over a new record. And if you added `print "New match: $number\n";` as the first line of the `if()` block, you would see each time a new number is matched and captured into `$number`. After running the script with those two debugging aids you would probably see that the file is being read in as one big record, rather than as multiple records. That seems impossible if your input data matches the data you showed us, and if you're executing the code you say you are. Either you've got `$/ = '';` in your code, or you have data that isn't separated by two newlines like it appears in your post. At least those are my best guesses without seeing exact cut&pastes of the first few records of your data, and of the script exactly as it's being run. For what it's worth, I copied and pasted the exact data you posted here and used that as the sample run for my solution. I also copied and pasted the exact data that you posted in your followup, and it also produced the correct results. Is it possible that you're re-typing the data rather than copy/pasting it, and that the blank line between records actually contains some space characters that we can't see, and that you didn't paste into your example data? By the way: This isn't contributing to your problem, but it is a darn good idea anyway: Put `use autodie;` right after the `use warnings;` line at the top of your script. That will alert you if a file fails to open (among other things). Dave	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Modify a txt file by Marshall (Canon) on Oct 20, 2011 at 03:18 UTC
Given that the input file has a very large number of lines, I would try to just process the file line by line (no slurping the file into a single $file_content or @lines). Here is one way: `#/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $cur_num; while (<DATA>) { $cur_num = $1 if (/^(\d+)/); # new $cur num if line starts # with digits s/(\S+)$/$cur_num/; # substitute the non-spaces at the end # of the line with the cur_num print; #a blank line is not modified } =Prints 0 0 0 0 13 13 13 28 28 28 42 42 42 42 55 55 55 55 55 =cut __DATA__ 0 ASDF ASEE ASEE 13 DERG DREG 28 QWER QWER 42 WERT WERT WERT 55 QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Modify a txt file by mrstlee (Beadle) on Oct 20, 2011 at 09:36 UTC
This one uses the new(ish) treat-strings-as-file-handles feature (See Effective Perl Programming) my $data = q(0 ASDF ASEE ASEE 13 DERG DREG 28 QWER QWER 42 WERT WERT WERT 55 QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD ); open $hndl , "<", \(my $s = $data); open $out , ">", \(my $formatted = ''); my $substitute_field; READ_FILE: while (my $line = <$hndl>) { chomp $line; ## Ignore any lines that don't contain relevant text $line =~ /\S+/ or next READ_FILE; $line =~ /^\s(\d+)(\s+)([A-Z]+)/ and do { $substitute_field = $1; print $out $substitute_field, $2 ,$substitute_field,"\n"; next READ_FILE; }; ## If we don't have a field to substitute move on defined $substitute_field or next READ_FILE; ## Must have valid line $line =~ s/^(\s)([A-Z]+)/$1$substitute_field/; print $out $line,"\n"; } print $formatted; close $hndl; close $out; [download] In: 0 ASDF ASEE ASEE 13 DERG DREG 28 QWER QWER 42 WERT WERT WERT 55 QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD QWEASD out: 0 0 0 0 13 13 13 28 28 28 42 42 42 42 55 55 55 55 55	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Modify a txt file by johngg (Canon) on Oct 20, 2011 at 22:39 UTC
You can dispense with the need for an input scalar by opening a filehandle on a reference to a HEREDOC. Also, there's no need to initialise your output scalar to the empty string as any previous content will be clobbered by the '>' in the open. `knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ perl -e ' > open my $inFH, q{<}, \ <<EOD or die qq{open: << HEREDOC: > $!\n}; > line 1 > line 2 > line 3 > EOD > > my $out = qq{some rubbish here\n}; > open $outFH, q{>}, \ $out or die qq{open: > scalar: $!\n}; > > while ( <$inFH> ) > { > print $outFH uc; > } > > print $out;' LINE 1 LINE 2 LINE 3 knoppix@Microknoppix:~$` [download] I hope this is of interest. Cheers, JohnGG	[reply] [d/l]