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04.17.2005 at 08:33PM PDT, ID: 21392233

	[x] Attachment Details

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6.0

Remove leading whitespaces

Zone: Perl Programming Language

Tags: perl, leading, remove, space

I have a text file in the format:

(Future) Ch. Giscours Margaux 750ml 12 per case
WA 90-92 points, This saturated ruby/purple-colored effort offers notes of liquid minerals interspersed with subtle toasty oak, black currant, graphite and a hint of flowers.
$28 per 750ml Bottle
$317 per Case of 12
     2002 Future
     Red Blend
     Bordeaux
     France
     Red
     Margaux
(Future) Ch. Giscours Margaux 750ml 12 per case
WS 92-94 points, Intense aromas of cooked fruit and prunes. Full-bodied, with rich and ripe fruit character. Soft, round tannins and a long finish. Heady and rich.
$38 per 750ml Bottle
$448 per Case of 12
     2003 Future
     Red Blend
     Bordeaux
     France
     Red
Margaux

The white spaces at the beginning of each line need to be eliminated so they start at the beginning. Need to adapt this script to read an outside text file and properly reformat it:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my $a=" parse text ";

$a =~ s/(^ *)||( *$)//g;
print "$a.\n";

Start your free trial to view this solution

Question Stats

Zone: Programming

Question Asked By: dprasad

Solution Provided By: teraplane

Participating Experts: 4

Solution Grade: A

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04.17.2005 at 08:59PM PDT, ID: 13803603

dprasad:

I tried this:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

$outfile = 'out.txt';

open (FILE, 'mydata.txt') or die "cannot open $file: $!"; # opens the file
open (outfile, 'out.txt') or die "cannot open $file: $!"; # opens the file

@my_file = <FILE>;

@my_file =~ s/(^ *)||( *$)//g;
print outfile "@my_file.\n";

gives error:

Global symbol "$outfile" requires explicit package name at p1.pl line 6.
Global symbol "$file" requires explicit package name at p1.pl line 8.
Global symbol "$file" requires explicit package name at p1.pl line 9.
Global symbol "@my_file" requires explicit package name at p1.pl line 11.
Global symbol "@my_file" requires explicit package name at p1.pl line 17.
Global symbol "@my_file" requires explicit package name at p1.pl line 18.
Execution of p1.pl aborted due to compilation errors.

04.17.2005 at 09:19PM PDT, ID: 13803650

Rank: Sage

Tintin:

No need for a script, just do:

perl -pe 's/^\s+//' mydata.txt >out.txt

04.17.2005 at 09:20PM PDT, ID: 13803652

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

Try this

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my $outfile = 'out.txt';
open (FILE, "<mydata.txt") or die "cannot open mydata.txt: $!"; # opens the file
open (outfile, ">out.txt") or die "cannot open $outfile: $!"; # opens the file

while <FILE>
{
$_ =~ s/(^ *)||( *$)//g;
print(outfile "$_\n";
}
close(outfile);

04.17.2005 at 09:22PM PDT, ID: 13803657

dprasad:

hmm ok. When I do that, the output file is in the same format as the input, i.e. no changes are made

04.17.2005 at 09:24PM PDT, ID: 13803659

Rank: Sage

Tintin:

If you were to write it as a script, I'd do it like:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my $data = 'mydata.txt';
my $outfile = 'out.txt';

open FILE, $data or die "Can not open $data $!\n";
open OUTPUT, ">$outfile" or die "Can not open $outfile $!\n";

while (<FILE>) {
s/^\s+/;
print OUTPUT;
}

Now, your script sample also tries to delete trailing whitespace, if you need that, add

s/\s+$//;

to the while loop.

04.17.2005 at 09:26PM PDT, ID: 13803667

dprasad:

ok, yeah I just need the leading spaces. I get the error:

Substitution replacement not terminated at p1.pl line 11.

which is: s/^\s+/;

04.17.2005 at 09:27PM PDT, ID: 13803668

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

i made a few errors, this one works for me

my $outfile = 'out.txt';
open (FILE, "<mydata.txt") or die "cannot open mydata.txt: $!"; # opens the file
open (outfile, ">out.txt") or die "cannot open $outfile: $!"; # opens the file

while (<FILE>)
{
chomp;
$_ =~ s/(^ *)||( *$)//g;
print(outfile "$_\n");
}
close(outfile);

04.17.2005 at 09:32PM PDT, ID: 13803676

dprasad:

hmmm... ok Im copying and pasting. Only the very last line got its whitespace cut out. All of the rest are still the same.

04.17.2005 at 09:34PM PDT, ID: 13803679

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

here is the outfile produced by my code, all white space stripped. what version of perl are u using?
---
Future) Ch. Giscours Margaux 750ml 12 per case
WA 90-92 points, This saturated ruby/purple-colored effort offers notes of liquid minerals interspersed with subtle toasty oak, black currant, graphite and a hint of flowers.
$28 per 750ml Bottle
$317 per Case of 12
2002 Future
Red Blend
Bordeaux
France
Red
Margaux
(Future) Ch. Giscours Margaux 750ml 12 per case
WS 92-94 points, Intense aromas of cooked fruit and prunes. Full-bodied, with rich and ripe fruit character. Soft, round tannins and a long finish. Heady and rich.
$38 per 750ml Bottle
$448 per Case of 12
2003 Future
Red Blend
Bordeaux
France
Red
Margaux

04.17.2005 at 09:34PM PDT, ID: 13803680

dprasad:

(Future) Ch. Giscours Margaux 750ml 12 per case
WS 92-94 points, Intense aromas of cooked fruit and prunes. Full-bodied, with rich and ripe fruit character. Soft, round tannins and a long finish. Heady and rich.
$38 per 750ml Bottle
$448 per Case of 12
      2003 Future
      Red Blend
      Bordeaux
      France
      Red
Margaux

04.17.2005 at 09:35PM PDT, ID: 13803683

dprasad:

not sure, how do i find out?

04.17.2005 at 09:36PM PDT, ID: 13803688

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

on command line type
perl -v

04.17.2005 at 09:37PM PDT, ID: 13803689

dprasad:

This is perl, v5.8.4 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
(with 3 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

04.17.2005 at 09:38PM PDT, ID: 13803695

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

should be fine then, have you tried my last program exactly as entered above?

04.17.2005 at 09:42PM PDT, ID: 13803704

dprasad:

yes, I copied and pasted it into a file called p2.pl

run with

perl p2.pl

weird.

04.17.2005 at 09:46PM PDT, ID: 13803717

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

I can simplify it a bit, can you check the creation date of out.txt to see it is the latest generated by the program?

my $outfile = 'out.txt';
open (FILE, "<mydata.txt") or die "cannot open mydata.txt: $!"; # opens the file
open (outfile, ">out.txt") or die "cannot open $outfile: $!"; # opens the file

while (<FILE>)
{
chomp;
$_ =~ s/^ *//g;
print(outfile "$_\n");
print ">>>$_<<<\n"; #this will echo output to the console for checking
}
close(outfile);

04.17.2005 at 09:50PM PDT, ID: 13803729

dprasad:

yes, the out.txt is up to date. I was deleting it after each execution just to be sure. On that last bit, I get this spit out to the screen:

>>>WS 92-94 points, Intense aromas of cooked fruit and prunes. Full-bodi
rich and ripe fruit character. Soft, round tannins and a long finish. H
rich. <<<
>>>$38 per 750ml Bottle<<<
>>>$448 per Case of 12<<<
>>> 2003 Future <<<
>>> Red Blend <<<
>>> Bordeaux <<<
>>> France <<<
>>> Red <<<
>>>Margaux <<<

but no changes appear in out.txt.

hate to ask this, but is there any way I could mail you the file? I'm a perl newbie, I wonder if theres something wrong with my installation.. The file is 181 kb. I woukld really appreciate it

04.17.2005 at 09:55PM PDT, ID: 13803745

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

I think i can see the problem, there may be tabs in your data.
Could you try this last change before sending the file?

while (<FILE>)
{
$_ =~ s/^\s*//g;
print(outfile "$_");
}

Accepted Solution

04.17.2005 at 09:57PM PDT, ID: 13803758

dprasad:

ahhhhh cool, yes that worked! thanks a lot for the help

Dinesh

04.17.2005 at 10:10PM PDT, ID: 13803793

Rank: Sage

Tintin:

Sorry. Typo. Should have been:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my $data = 'mydata.txt';
my $outfile = 'out.txt';

open FILE, $data or die "Can not open $data $!\n";
open OUTPUT, ">$outfile" or die "Can not open $outfile $!\n";

while (<FILE>) {
s/^\s+//;
print OUTPUT;
}

Assisted Solution

04.17.2005 at 10:19PM PDT, ID: 13803808

dprasad:

It's all good, I was starting to feel my carpel tunnel tire out from manually taking those damn tabs out, phew

04.17.2005 at 10:23PM PDT, ID: 13803820

Rank: Wizard

teraplane:

glad it's working. As I helped solve the question by identifying the tabs (white space) problem it would have been nice to also have received some points :)

04.17.2005 at 10:24PM PDT, ID: 13803823

dprasad:

woops, sorry about that I wasnt paying attention!! I will re assign points, my bad

04.17.2005 at 10:28PM PDT, ID: 13803833

dprasad:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Community_Support/Q_21392287.html

04.18.2005 at 04:02AM PDT, ID: 13804930

Rank: Sage

jmcg:

I've reopened the question so you can close it the way you want.

jmcg
EE Page Editor for Perl

04.18.2005 at 04:39AM PDT, ID: 13805115

Rank: Wizard

manav_mathur:

If you are on windows, an earlier suggestion by Tintin might be modified to suit your requirements

perl -pe "s/^\s+//" mydata.txt >out.txt

or if you want to change te original file itself,

perl -i.bak -pe "s/^\s+//" mydata.txt

this will change mydata.txt and save the original file as mydata.txt.bak

04.18.2005 at 04:47AM PDT, ID: 13805168

Rank: Wizard