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

Hi people! Need your help for what i think is a simple problem with a simple solution which i can't figure out. I have a list with phonenumbers coming from a csv file like so: 

+12 34567890
+23 45678901
+34 56789012
+45 67890123
+56 78901234

[download]

And what i want is simply this: 

+12 3456 7890
+23 4567 8901
+34 5678 9012
+45 6789 0123
+56 7890 1234

[download]

So basically a whitespace between the 7th and 8th character. Is it possible to do this with regex or should i think of using substr? The phonenumbers are located in column 21. I already did my research and found this topic: How do I insert (not overwrite) into a string? but i'm not sure which i should use or how i can apply this to my case. I've tried: substr ($elements[20], 0, 7) . " " . substr($elements[20], 7); This is my entire code: 

if ($#ARGV != 1) {print "usage: input-file output-file \n";exit;} 

$inputfile=$ARGV[0];
$outputfile=$ARGV[1];

open(INFILE,$inputfile) || die "Bestand niet gevonden :$!\n";
open(OUTFILE,">$outputfile") || die "Bestand niet gevonden :$!\n";

$i = 0;

@infile=<INFILE>;

foreach ( @infile )
        {
      $infile[$i] =~ s/"//g;            # Verwijderd alle " per regel
      
      @elements = split(/;/,$infile[$i]);        # Create array

# Phonenumber clean
             
    $elements[20] =~ s/\D//g;            # Clear all non-digit
    #print "$elements[20]\n";      

    $elements[20] =~ s/(^00|^0)//i;            # Remove 00 and 0
    #print "$elements[20]\n";

    if ($elements[19] =~ m/45/g)             # When 45, replace with +
+45
          {
             $elements[20] =~ s/^/\+45 /;
        $elements[19] =~ s/45/xxxx/;
        #print "$elements[20]\n";
        }

    $elements[20] =~ s/(^450|^45)/\+45 /;        # Removes 450/45 and 
+places +45
    #print "$elements[20]";

    if ($elements[20] =~ m/^[1-9]/i)         # 1 to 9 gets replaced wi
+th +45
          {
               $elements[20] =~ s/^/\+45 /;
        #print "$elements[20]\n";
           }

    if ($elements[20] =~ /^\+45\s{1}\d{9,}$/) {    # More then 8 digit
+s, nr to long
            $elements[25] = 'TE LANG NR';
        #print "$elements[24]\n";
        }
    
    if ($elements[20] =~ /^\+45\s{1}\d{1,7}$/) {    # Less then 8, to 
+short
           $elements[25] = 'TE KORT NR';
            #print "$elements[24]\n";
        }
    
    if (!($elements[20])) {
        $elements[25] = 'GEEN NR BEKEND';    # Empty field = no number
        }        
    if ($elements[20] =~ m/^.{12}/
    

    substr ($elements[20], 0, 7) . " " . substr($elements[20], 7);    
+      

# End phonenumber clean

    @elements = join(";",@elements);    # Add ';' to all elements
    print OUTFILE "@elements";
    $i = $i+1;
    }

close(INFILE);
close(OUTFILE);

[download]

How do i fit the substr function in there? Oh fyi, i'm new to perl;)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Add whitespace in middle of string (substr?)
by choroba (Cardinal) on Jun 12, 2012 at 09:52 UTC
    If all the numbers have the same length, substr is a good tool. Use the four-argument version to modify the string, just add a space at position 8, replacing 0 characters: 
    #!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

while (my $number = <DATA>) {
    substr $number, 8, 0, ' ';
    print $number;
}

__DATA__
+12 34567890
+23 45678901
+34 56789012
+45 67890123
+56 78901234

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Add whitespace in middle of string (substr?)
by jwkrahn (Abbot) on Jun 12, 2012 at 09:56 UTC 
    $ perl -le'
my @numbers = ( "+12 34567890", "+23 45678901", "+34 56789012", "+45 6
+7890123", "+56 78901234" );
for my $num ( @numbers ) {
    print $num;
    substr $num, -4, 0, " ";
    print $num;
    }
'
+12 34567890
+12 3456 7890
+23 45678901
+23 4567 8901
+34 56789012
+34 5678 9012
+45 67890123
+45 6789 0123
+56 78901234
+56 7890 1234

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Add whitespace in middle of string (substr?)
by Janwhatever (Novice) on Jun 12, 2012 at 11:44 UTC
    Hi, i've tried both your suggestions but can't seem to make it work. It gives me 2 errors: 
    X:\bla\script.pl Denemarken.csv xx.csv
syntax error at X:\bla\script.pl line 55, near "$elements["
syntax error at X:\bla\script.pl line 82, near "}"
Execution of X:\bla\script.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

    [download]
    This is my entire code: 
    if ($#ARGV != 1) {print "usage: input-file output-file \n";exit;} 

$inputfile=$ARGV[0];
$outputfile=$ARGV[1];

open(INFILE,$inputfile) || die "Bestand niet gevonden :$!\n";
open(OUTFILE,">$outputfile") || die "Bestand niet gevonden :$!\n";

$i = 0;

@infile=<INFILE>;

foreach ( @infile )
        {
      $infile[$i] =~ s/"//g;                
      
      @elements = split(/;/,$infile[$i]);        

# Number clean
             
    if (!($elements[20] =~ /^\+45\s{1}\d{4}\s{1}\d{4}$/))
        {
          $elements[20] =~ s/\D//g;            
        }      

    $elements[20] =~ s/(^00|^0)//i;                


    if ($elements[19] =~ m/45/g)             
          {
             $elements[20] =~ s/^/\+45 /;
        $elements[19] =~ s/45/xxxx/;
        }

    $elements[20] =~ s/(^450|^45)/\+45 /;        


    if ($elements[20] =~ m/^[1-9]/i)         
          {
               $elements[20] =~ s/^/\+45 /;
        }

    if ($elements[20] =~ /^\+45\s{1}\d{9,}$/) {        
            $elements[25] = 'TE LANG NR';
        }
    
    if ($elements[20] =~ /^\+45\s{1}\d{1,7}$/) {    
           $elements[25] = 'TE KORT NR';
            }
    
    if (!($elements[20])) {
        $elements[25] = 'GEEN NR BEKEND';    
        }        

    while (my $elements[20] = <INFILE>) {
        substr $elements, 7, 0, ' ';
        }

# Zipcode clean
      
    $elements[15] =~ s/\D//g;             

    if (!($elements[15])) {                
         # do nothing
    } else {
         $elements[15] =~ s/^/DK-/;
        }
    
# Netnumber clean
    
    $elements[19] =~ s/\<not in use\>/xxxx/i;    
    
    $elements[19] =~ s/45/xxxx/;            

    if (!($elements[19])) {                
        $elements[19] = 'xxxx';
        }
    
    @elements = join(";",@elements);        
    print OUTFILE "@elements";
    $i = $i+1;
    }

close(INFILE);
close(OUTFILE);

    [download]
    Can either of you tell me what i'm doing wrong and point me in the right direction? Because i think this is as far as my knowledge goes on the subject
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      What happens when you fix those syntax errors? Perl is telling you where to find them.

      First, decide upon a sane indentation strategy and stick with it. Formatting your code consistently will aid in tracking down such mistakes as extra } braces.

      Second (your first error, actually): You can't declare a single element of an array to be lexically scoped via my. my $elements[20] is wrong.


      Dave

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      The reason your attempt at substr doesn't work, this part 

         while (my $elements[20] = <INFILE>) {
        substr $elements, 7, 0, ' ';
        }

      [download]

      is simple, files are iterators, once you read the whole file, this part of your code  @infile=<INFILE>;

      you're at the very end, there is no more file left to read

      Also that is a syntax error

      You probably meant to write 

      substr $elements[20], 7, 0, '  ';

      [download]

      You ought to give perlintro another read

       if ($#ARGV != 1) {print "usage: input-file output-file \n";exit;}

      In perlish perl we write that as :) 

      @ARGV or die "Usage: $0  input-file output-file\n";

      [download]

      You can write it as  if( @ARGV  ){ die "Usage: $0  input-file output-file\n"; } if you're attached to if(){}

[reply]
[d/l]
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Re: Add whitespace in middle of string (substr?)
by Janwhatever (Novice) on Jun 12, 2012 at 12:50 UTC
    To be honest, i don't know perl enough to know what i did wrong yet. I know that perl is telling me where to look but i'm not seeing it. I was kinda put right in the middle of it so u can say that i've been learning it "on the fly". I have serveral books and tutorials but i have to admit i find it difficult understanding it al. So i'm still trying and will definitely give perlintro another read;) Can you show me how it's supossed to be? So i can learn from it..
[reply]

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