I'd like to replace all "@" in returned FORM input values by HTML "@":
$value =~ s/\@/@/g;
Problem is: the semicolon seems to terminate the line. I tried "\;" but that won't work either. I guess it's simple, but I can't find the clue...
TIA!
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Hi all,
thanks a lot for the input.
ChunkBlower: I don't see what the use of "|" instead of "/" should change. In fact: it simply doesn't work...
ahoffmann: It should? But it doesn't. I mean, I am no PERL expert... All substitutions in this area of my code are executed. Just the @-sign doesn't get removed. And I guess that's because the ";" terminates the line prematurely. Perhaps it has another reason? - What do you mean by
except you have set $value = "aa@bb"; ?
Of course the email address is of this type. But does the value of $value affect my code?
use strict; definitely is no option for now. I'd have to rewrite tons of lines of code...
Tintin: could you elaborate a bit more on that escapeHTML? Is this module available on every machine? What is $q? What is param{field}?
Tia
> Of course the email address is of this type.
and
> use strict; definitely is no option for now
try it, and you get a full description whats wrong with "aa@bb". I'm pretty shure that this is your problem. Define
$value="aa\@bb"
then it should work.
> .. could you elaborate a bit more on that escapeHTML ..
i.g. use CGI is a good idea:
use CGI;
my $q =new CGI;
$value=$q->escapeHTML($val
#-------------------------
use URI::Escape;
my $value = qw[jim@myCo.com];
print "$value\n";
$value = uri_escape( $value );
print "$value\n";
#-------------------------
The above script will print:
jim@myCo.com
jim%40myCo.com
It is perfectly acceptable to escape '@' with "%40" according to RFC 1738. The primary thing that other solutions have been missing is the use of qw. It works alot of magic here. If you remove qw, i.e. change the second line to:
my $value = "jim@myCo.com";
you should notice that the results then become:
jim.com
jim.com
This is because the perl interpreter performs variable interpolation before the assignment happens. That is, it replaces the array, @myCo, with its current value; which of course is nothing. I am sure this is the source of your problem. You could of course change the script to get exactly what you asked for, but I think the more general solution, as Tintin was suggesting, provided by URI::Escape or escapeHTML is preferable. The script modified to give exactly what you requested (notice that it uses your original regex; there was never anything wrong with it):
#-------------------------
use URI::Escape;
my $value = qw[jim@myCo.com];
print "$value\n";
$value =~ s/\@/@/g;
print "$value\n";
#-------------------------
djplaistow, are you aware that uri_escape() is different to escapeHTML()?
> On my local machine (Win XP) your code doesn't work.
hutter, my code works! even on some strange M$ boxes.
Either the culprit is your M$ XP, or your version of perl, or whteveryoucanthinkofinconj
PLease use my example in a single file, start it from command line (cmd.exe) and post complete result.
Of course everyone is aware that uri_escape() and escapeHTML() are two different things; hence the two different names. I suppose there is no harm in stating the obvious. However, the point was to prefer the generic solution provided by URI::Escape ----- OR ----- escapeHTML to a solution that will only work for a single character. I tested my code on my Win2000 box with a version ActiveState Perl and The OpenPerlIDE; it works fine.
I don't think ahoffman's solution is viable whether it works in our contrived examples or not. The problem is that hutter is getting the email address from a web form. There are an infinite number of possibilities, and hutter can't escape the '@' manually for all of them. qw seems to be the only reasonable solution to inhibiting the interpreter's variable interpolation.
uri_escape() and escapeHTML() do different things!
One is for HTTP, the other for HTML.
> The problem is that hutter is getting the email address from a web form.
hmm, don't think so, 'cause hutter posted that it is et like:
$variable="aa@bb";
If it is from the form, perl quotes the value propper, and won't complain, usually.
ahoffmann> uri_escape() and escapeHTML() do different things!
Yes, I'll say it again:
"uri_escape() and escapeHTML() are two different things; hence the two different names"
Did you catch that when I said it earlier? Do you realize that I am agreeing with you?
What they have in common is that they both provide generic solutions, that was my whole point; prefer generic solutions to specific ones.
ahoffmann>hmm, don't think so
Read hutter's first sentence in his original post. What does he mean by: "in returned FORM input values" ? Of course he is not trying to find out how to do it in this one specific instance. If he was, then all he would need to do is set $value to "aa@bb" and not worry about programatically replacing the '@'
> Did you catch that when I said it earlier?
yes. but could be read otherwise too. Sorry for misunderstanding.
> What does he mean by: "in returned FORM input values"?
seems to be clear for everyone.
But in a following post we read: "Of course the email address is of this type. But does the value of $value affect my code?"
So best would be posting the relevant code parts:
1. code which sets $value initially
2. code which changes $value
and: which version of perl? which other options are used (like -T)
I had prepared a long reply with all facts, then decided to do some more testing...
Strange enough: It simply works. With my original code. Don't ask me why. Maybe I just didn't see the substitution (as @ is an HTML-entity and is displayed as an @-sign (in fact that's what it's all about...). Although I am sure I looked at the source code. Anyway. The problem was definitely not the lacking "qw", as the value made its way safely into my script. Sorry to have bothered you. I will share the points between you.
Puzzle solved!
To update you on the full story: The script that was in question was part of a guestbook. As I got lots of junk entries from people advertising their business I added a confirmation form that passes the original values to the guestbook after the user enters a generated random number. This second form converted my "@" back to "%40".
Solution: Move the substitution code from script A to script B. Done...
Thanks a lot for your assistance, even if I didn't give you any idea of the *real* problem.
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by: zero303Posted on 2003-09-17 at 04:23:46ID: 9377167
$value =~ s/\@/@/g;
$value.=";";