There's got to be an easier way to do this. STDIN and sprintf question

[StormMedic85]

Below is my current code. I have the user enter a year, month, date and time. What I'd like to do is consolidate this all into one line...the user can enter it in a certain format like YYYYMMDDTT and the program will extract the year, month, and date from what's entered and format it the same way I have it below.

The formatting is important. For example, if the user were to just enter 9 for the month and not 09 I would want the program to format it appropriately. Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated!

Here's how I have it currently...

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

print "Enter the four digit year: ";
$year = <STDIN>;
chomp $year;

print "Enter the number of the month: ";
$month = <STDIN>;
chomp $month;

print "Enter the date: ";
$date = <STDIN>;
chomp $date;

print "Enter the sounding time (1200 or 0000): ";
$time = <STDIN>;
chomp $time;

$RAMSDate=sprintf("%04d-%02d-%02d-%04d",$year,$month,$date,$time);
$NWSDate=sprintf("%04d%02d%02d%04d",$year,$month,$date,$time);

print "$RAMSDate \n";
print "$NWSDate \n";

 

[audiopro]

I would prefer 3 popup menus so the entered data is consistent. It is an easier interface for the user too.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[chrismassey]

I agree with audiopro that 3 popup menus would be easiest.

However I guess you could use Perls split function to split the year, month, date, and time.

You would therefore need a character between each of the elements (a separator) so that perl can identify each individual elements...

So... YYYY/MM/DD/TT (So the separating character here is "," (comma).

So, the user enters the information into a textbox in that format, i.e. they enter "2007,09,24,12"...

#variables
my ($data, @data, $year, $month, $day, $time);

#Take the data from the textbox
$data = param('textbox');

#split it into the individual elements
@data = split (/,/ , $data);

#print the data
foreach (@data) {
($year, $month, $day, $time) = split (/,/);
}

I have only quickly written this, so I may have made an error. But I think using the split function will help you here

Chris

 

[KevinADC]

You have to validate each field of the date/time before handing it off to sprintf for further formatting. Otherwise you could just be formatting bad date/times. What is someone accidently enters 33 for the month?

Anyway you do it, seperate menus or one, you have to validate the user input before proceeding.

------------------------------------------
- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!

 

[chrismassey]

thats another issue. It is usually best to allow users to select from a set number of years because years are pretty much infinate. Days you could set it so the number must be between 1 and 31 (so $### >= 1 || $### <= 31) however you still have the issue that there are not always 31 days in a month. Do the same for days and time.
I always get the solution I need, but I am not expereinced enough to write shorter code.
Good luck