odd behavior of strings

[peterworth]

The following code:

foreach $postcode (<NEEDED>)
{
   chomp $postcode;
   chop $postcode;
   print "'$postcode'";
   if ($postcode eq "SA460EY")
   {
      print "\nequal";
   }
   else
   {
      print "\nnot equal";
   }
}

gives output:
'SA460EY'
not equal

although clearly the value of $postcode printed IS equal to the one in the if statement. i appreciate its difficult to say whats wrong without seeing the NEEDED file, but for what reasons could these 2 strings not be equal despite appearing to be? could there be some kind of hidden character in there?

thanks.

 

[MikeLacey]

Hello Peter,

Leave the chomp line in, remove the chop line. That will sort it out (just tried it)

Mike

To err is human,
but to really foul things up -
you require a man Mike.

Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at faq219-2884

 

[peterworth]

hi,

now i just get this output:

'SA460EY
'ot equal
'SA460DL
not equal

notice the second ' dissapears for some reason...

thanks for your help.

p.s. the file its reading from is just a list of postcodes 1 per line. eg the last 2 which give the output above are just:

SA460EY
SA460DL

 

[Coderifous]

Mike's advice resolved the issue per my testing as well. Here's my test.

foreach $postcode (<DATA>)
{
   chomp $postcode;
   print "'$postcode'\n";
   if ($postcode eq "SA460EY")
   {
      print "equal\n";
   }
   else
   {
      print "not equal\n";
   }
}

__DATA__
SA460EY
SA460DL

--jim

 

[peterworth]

ok thanks - i realise now that the code should work, its just that there are 'O's where there should be '0's :/ sorry..

 

[Coderifous]

Time to switch fonts on your terminal. I use Monaco Regular. Zeroes have a slash through them, O's don't. Plus it's fixed width, some people don't like that though.

--jim

 

[PaulTEG]

Fixed width, best for coding anyway (formatting), Lucida Console
--Paul

Nancy Griffith - songstress extraordinaire,
and composer of the snipers anthem "From a distance ...