in reply to Re: Time matching YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.SSS
in thread Time matching YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.SSS

Hi Dave, Here is a bit more code: 
$earliest0 = `more $ARGV[0]| grep -v Epoch > newfile.txt| head -1 newf
+ile.txt`;
@Array0 = split(' ',$earliest0);
$date0 = "@Array0[0] @Array0[1]";
$earliest1 = `more $ARGV[1]| grep -v Epoch > newfile1.txt| head -1 new
+file1.txt`;
@Array1 = split(' ',$earliest1);
$date1 = "@Array1[0] @Array1[1]";

if($date0 eq $date1){$early = $ARGV[0]; $late = $ARGV[1];}
if($date0 lt $date1){$early = $ARGV[0]; $late = $ARGV[1];
    $File = "newfile.txt"; open(File);
    $i = 0;
    while(<File>){
        @check = split(' ',$_);
        $date = "@check[0] @check[1]";
        if($date eq $date1){last;} $i++;
    }
}
if($date1 lt $date0){$early = $ARGV[1]; $late = $ARGV[0];
    $File = "newfile1.txt"; open(File);
    $i = 0;
    while(<File>){
        @check = split(' ',$_);
        $date = "@check[0] @check[1]";
        if($date eq $date0){last;} $i = $i++;
    }
}

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The  while statements are needed to determine which line number matches the latest date. I tried using regular expressions to do this but could not figure it out. When I execute this script it sometimes returns the correct $i, sometimes executes the wrong $if statement. Thanks!

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Re^3: Time matching YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.SSS
by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Jul 26, 2012 at 19:03 UTC
    Well, I asked for code and data that demonstrates the inconsistency; you didn't show any data.

    Having said that, your code is ... well .. just God-awful.

    It violates just about every rule of good coding practice and style going. I haven't the will to go though a complete list (maybe some other kind soul will have the patience), but just for starters:

    Add 

    use warnings;
use strict;

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    at the start of your code. You will be amazed!

    The two-arg form of open is frowned upon. The one-arg form is vomit inducing.

    In your second branch, you have $i = $i++; which is definitely not what you need, and may in fact be the cause of all your issues.

    Dave.

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      The $i = $i++ was a cut and paste error. That's not the problem. It should be $i++;. The data would look something like this: 
      file1.txt:

2009/01/01 00:05:00.000  nmbr nmbr
2009/01/01 00:10:00.000  nmbr nmbr
2009/01/01 00:15:00.000  nmbr nmbr
2009/01/01 00:20:00.000  nmbr nmbr

file2.txt:

2009/01/01 00:00:00.000  nmbr nmbr
2009/01/01 00:05:00.000  nmbr nmbr
2009/01/01 00:10:00.000  nmbr nmbr
2009/01/01 00:15:00.000  nmbr nmbr
2009/01/01 00:20:00.000  nmbr nmbr

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      The user may not know which file contains the earlier timestamp. nmbr is a placeholder. Also, I didn't cut and paste the entire code, it is too long. I can include the preamble for you if you wish 
      #!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

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      What is the form of open I should use? Thanks for the help.
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        So: is what you want to do to count the number of (non-epoch) lines in the earlier file that are before the first date in the second file?

        Note that unless the first timestamp in the later file exactly matches one of the timestamps in the earlier file, your code will keep counting through the rest of the file.

        Use the 3-arg form with lexical filehandles: 

        open my $fh, '<', 'newfile.txt'
   or die "Can't open newfile.txt: $!\n";

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        If use warnings was in scope where you reference @Array0[0], you would have seen a warning (not that it affects the correct execution of your code).

        Dave.

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