$nfo = <SOURCE>;
$tar = <TARGET>;


this should probably be:

@nfo = <SOURCE>;
@tar = <TARGET>;

I am trying to replace a value in another file retreiving it from one file.it gives me a numeric value i have no idea why?

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

sysopen SOURCE,openfil,2 or die "can't open file SOURCE ";
$_ = <SOURCE>;
close SOURCE;
print "$_";

@element = split (/\t/,$_);

print @element;
$data = target;
open (VARIABLE,'>>data.pl') or die "can't open the file VARIABLE";
$var = <VARIABLE>;
print "managed to open file";
close VARIABLE;
print '$var';
print "managed to open file";

        if ($var = ~s/sourceid/element/gi) {
        }
print "$var";

~                           

open (VARIABLE,'>>data.pl') or die "can't open the file VARIABLE";
$var = <VARIABLE>;


you can't read from a file when you open it for appending.

you need to:

open (VARIABLE,'data.pl') or die "can't open the file VARIABLE";
then if you want all of the lines from the filehandle instead of just one, you need to :

@var = <VARIABLE>;

I am try to read the substring which are going to be further split by comma's.
i can't find the operator which you use to stop the search if you find the match.

Yes, you can read a file opened for appending.

Ok, let's have a look at the code.  First, I would suggest cleaning up a bit.  If I understand correctly, you are trying to read a file containing a tab and comma delimited list and then do what?  Well, here is code that should read your list, and then I will recreate the list again for you.  This decomposition and recomposition should at least show you how to work with the file and the text.


#!/usr/local/bin/perl

# declare your file variables
my $source_file = "file1.name";
my $target_file = "file2.name";

# open the file
open(SOURCE,"$source_file") or die "$!";
# read the file into an array of lines
my (@SOURCE) = <SOURCE>;
# close your file
close(SOURCE);

# Join your array of lines into a single line.
# This assumes that there is nothing but a
# newline between them so it inserts a tab.
my $source = join("\t",@SOURCE);

# reuse your @SOURCE array to store the new
# array of comma delimited strings by
# splitting on the tabs
@SOURCE = split(/\t/,$source);

# now create sub-arrays to store your list
# of elements by splitting on the commas
for (my $x=0; $x<@SOURCE; $x++)
{
  @SOURCE[$x] = split(/,/,$SOURCE[$x]);
}

# Ok, now we have everything all split up,
# so now we could do something with it.
# Here, I'll just make it into a comma delimited,
# tab delimited list again.
for (my $x=0; $x<@SOURCE; $x++)
{
  $SOURCE[$x] = join(/,/,@SOURCE[$x]);
}
$source = join(/\t/,@SOURCE);

open(TARGET,">$target_file") or die "$!";
print TARGET $source;
close(TARGET);


I hope that is helpful.

Sincerely,
 
Tom Anderson
CEO, Order amid Chaos, Inc.
http://www.oac-design.com

I am trying to split one array into numerious arrays but when i try to name them with the loop generating numbers it generates an error.
 

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

#opening the file to read
sysopen SOURCE,openfil,2 or die "can't open file SOURCE ";
#saving the data in an array
 @_ = <SOURCE>;
        #check if content is in it
        print @_;
        #assigning value to x
        $x=0;
        #trying to store each line of the array in numerious arrays
        foreach $line (@_) {
                #storing each line in array element[0]...element[1] ,trying to s
plit the contents of the line in different elements of the array.

             "\@element$x" = split (/\t/,$line); #i get an error when i try to r
eplace the value of x

                print "\@element$x \n";
                $x++;
        }
close SOURCE;               

I just showed you how to do that.  If you don't understand a part of the code, please specify which part is confusing you.

Sincerely,
 
Tom Anderson
CEO, Order amid Chaos, Inc.
http://www.oac-design.com

i understand splitting it but if itry to name it then it generates an error,it would be helpful if you could look at the last part again .

No offense, but your code is sloppy... I'd rather not try to understand it.  The code I wrote above works as you want it to.  Every element in your list is in the @SOURCE array.  $SOURCE[1][1] is the first element of your first comma-delimited list.  $SOURCE[1][2] is the second element of your first comma-delimited list.  $SOURCE[2][1] is the first element of your second comma-delimited list.  Et cetera.  If you want, you can do my $first_list = @SOURCE[1];, etc, to name the lists individually.

Is there some part of your question I haven't answered with this illustration?

Sincerely,
 
Tom Anderson
CEO, Order amid Chaos, Inc.
http://www.oac-design.com

if you know a way to read a file by opening it for appending, i'd love to know what it is. because i can't seem to get it to work. maybe it's a bug in activeperl, but i doubt it.

Thanks for all the help  you have given,AS i am a new programmer ,i still have a lot to learn.

the sample of the file that i am try to split is
Sourceid   title    id,id,id,id    year   yearid---use to create one xmlfile
Sourceid2  title2    ids,ids,ids    year2  yearid2---use to create another xmlfile

the format of the data to be replaced in the file is
<Sourceid>sourceid</sourceid>
<title>title</title>

whatever is written in the text fdile is replaced in the xml file.

I am open to all suggestions about the logic of my code
thanks again for all the help.

> if you know a way to read a file by opening it for appending

try

open ( MYFILE, "+>> file.txt" )

it works on my activeperl

oops, i forgot about that.

Ok, kavi98, I'll rewrite my example to work on your specific problem:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

# open the file
open(SOURCE,"source.file") or die "$!";
# read the file into an array of lines
my (@SOURCE) = <SOURCE>;
# close your file
close(SOURCE);

# This time we'll keep the array of lines since
# each line appears to be its own record

# create sub-arrays to store the
# array of elements in each record by
# splitting on the tabs
for (my $x=0; $x<@SOURCE; $x++)
{
  @SOURCE[$x] = split(/\t/,$source);
}

# now create sub-arrays to store your list
# of ids by splitting on the commas
for (my $x=0; $x<@SOURCE; $x++)
{
  for (my $y=0; $y<@SOURCE[$x]; $y++)
  {
    @SOURCE[$x][$y] = split(/,/,$SOURCE[$x][$y]);
  }
}

# Ok, now we have everything all split up,
# so now let's write your xml files

for (my $x=0; $x<@SOURCE; $x++)
{
  # open the target file
  open(TARGET,">xml.file$x") or die "$!";
  # print your first two elements
  print TARGET qq~<sourceid>$SOURCE[$x][1]</sourceid>\n~;
  print TARGET qq~<title>$SOURCE[$x][2]</title>\n~;
  # print all of your id's
  for (my $y=0; $y<@SOURCE[$x][3]; $y++)
  {
    print TARGET qq~<id$y>$SOURCE[$x][3][$y]</id$y>\n~;
  }
  # print the rest of your elements
  print TARGET qq~<year>$SOURCE[$x][4]</year>\n~;
  print TARGET qq~<yearid>$SOURCE[$x][5]</yearid>\n~;
  # close the file
  close(TARGET);
}

There, now you took your one source file and wrote a bunch of xml files based on that input.

Has that solved your problem?

Sincerely,
 
Tom Anderson
CEO, Order amid Chaos, Inc.
http://www.oac-design.com

for (my $y=0; $y<@SOURCE[$x]; $y++)
  {
    @SOURCE[$x][$y] = split(/,/,$SOURCE[$x][$y]);
  }

for (my $y=0; $y<@SOURCE[$x][3]; $y++)
  {
    print TARGET qq~<id$y>$SOURCE[$x][3][$y]</id$y>\n~;
  }
  
Can't use subscript on array slice at mysource.pl line 28, near "$y]"
Can't use subscript on array slice at mysource.pl line 43, near "3]"
this generates an error,i have been trying to substitute in a for statement with arrays and it gives me the same error.


Thanks for all the help,i was wondering what qq~ does.
Thanks
Kavi98