I cannot believe I'm asking a question about split

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

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Re: I cannot believe I'm asking a question about split by Cristoforo (Curate) on Aug 08, 2012 at 22:07 UTC
From the documentation for split: `1. print join(':', split(',', 'a,b,c,,,')), "\n"; produces the output 'a:b:c', but the following: 1. print join(':', split(',', 'a,b,c,,,', -1)), "\n"; produces the output 'a:b:c:::'.` [download] Chris	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: I cannot believe I'm asking a question about split by Anonymous Monk on Aug 08, 2012 at 22:15 UTC
Many many thanks Chris.. That's exactly what I was looking for!	[reply]
Re: I cannot believe I'm asking a question about split by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Aug 08, 2012 at 22:15 UTC
By default, split preserves leading empty fields but strips trailing empty fields. You can change that behavior, and preserve trailing empty fields, by using `-1` as the last parameter, like so: `@col = split(",",$a,-1);` [download] See also: FMTYEWTK about split //	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: I cannot believe I'm asking a question about split by kcott (Archbishop) on Aug 08, 2012 at 22:15 UTC
Use a `LIMIT` of `-1`. It's documented in split. `$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my $x = q{a,b,c,d,}; my @col = split /,/, $x, -1; say "X${_}X" for @col; ' XaX XbX XcX XdX XX` [download] -- Ken	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: I cannot believe I'm asking a question about split by Kenosis (Priest) on Aug 08, 2012 at 22:26 UTC
`split` does use a regex, as the second parameter passed to it. That being said, perhaps a regex with a capture will effectively propagate an array for you, sans the 'extra characters:' `use Modern::Perl; use Data::Dumper; my $a = 'a,b,c,d,,,,,,,'; my @col = $a =~ /([^,]+)/gi; say Dumper \@col;` [download] Output: `$VAR1 = [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' ];` [download] However, if you know the number of columns and want to limit `split` to those, you can do the following: `use Modern::Perl; use Data::Dumper; my $a = 'a,b,c,d,,,,,,,'; my @col = ( split ',', $a, )[ 0 .. 3 ]; say Dumper \@col;` [download] Output: `$VAR1 = [ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd' ];` [download] Hope this helps! Update: `my @col = split /,+/, $a;` produces the same output as both examples above.	[reply] [d/l] [select]