Hi,
I'm writing a script to extract data from a lot of txt files. Here is how each txt file is formatted:
 18884 alfCet  2.5 1.6 1.4 1U  43.3 241.9   22903.0    151.3     747.0
 18925 gamPer  2.9 0.7 0.6     54.6 319.3   14474.0    120.3     394.0
 19058  roPer  3.4 1.6 1.8 2U  57.5 293.4   22005.0    148.3    1122.0
 19275         4.9 0.0 0.1  C  43.7 346.9   18311.0    135.3    1700.0
 19356 betPer  2.1-0.1 0.0 3P  58.0 297.4   20842.0    144.4     417.0
 19373 iotPer  4.0 0.6 0.5  C  56.5 313.2   16303.0    127.7     510.0
 19476 kapPer  3.8 1.0 0.7  C  57.7 304.7   18094.0    134.5     707.0
 19656 omgPer  4.6 1.1 0.8     58.6 294.9   23508.0    153.3    1330.0
 19787 delAri  4.4 1.0 0.8     54.1 259.4   30779.0    175.4     524.0
 20150 zetAri  4.9 0.0 0.1  C  55.4 260.9   33579.0    183.2     638.0
 20336         4.8-0.1 0.0 1U  50.0 338.0   13931.0    118.0     453.0
 20468         4.8 1.5 1.1     59.9 284.2   22993.0    151.6    2761.0
 20630 kapCet  4.8 0.7 0.6 1P  45.9 237.1   24642.0    157.0     463.0
 20644         4.5 1.5 1.2 1M  59.4 274.0   32184.0    179.4     729.0
 20677    Per  5.0 0.0 0.1  C  60.1 302.5   20469.0    143.1     392.0
 20902 alfPer  1.8 0.5 0.5 1M  58.8 315.2   16320.0    127.7     430.0
 21120 omiTau  3.6 0.9 0.7  C  50.7 241.9   36123.0    190.1    3694.0
 21278         5.0-0.1 0.0  C  59.6 314.2   16296.0    127.7     464.0
 21291         4.2 0.4 0.4 1P  54.4 331.8   14214.0    119.2     373.0
 21364  xiTau  3.8-0.1 0.0 2U  51.6 242.2       0.0      0.0       0.0
 21389         4.5 0.6 0.5 1U  55.1 330.4   13585.0    116.6     386.0
 21428    Per  4.7-0.1 0.0  D  59.7 315.1       0.0      0.0       0.0

[download]


Here is my code so far:
@filecheck = <*.txt>;

    foreach $file (@filecheck) {
        open FILE, "$file" or die "\nError reading file";
        @lines = <FILE>;
        close FILE;

        open FILE, "$file" or die "\nError reading file";
        foreach $line (@lines) {
            @words = split ' ', $line;
            if (@words [1] eq $star) {
                print "\n@words[var]";
            }
        }
    }

[download]


As you can see, I break the txt data into arrays via spaces. Here is why the formatting of the file matters. Sometimes, there are blank entries where data should be or a negative sign inbetween two numbers that should be considered seperate. This makes the array of the words smaller than it should be. Since the data that is to be outputed depends on its position in the array, the wrong data is outputed.

Is there an easier way to do this or break the txt file down to make this possible?
Thanx.

In reply to data extraction from badly formated txt files by Anonymous Monk

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