Format question

[perlUSER]

Hello;
I started learning Perl recently and am stuck with the Perl "format"
function.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Program:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use lib '/tmp/perl';
use FileHandle;

format STDOUT =
Album=@<<<<<<<<<<<<< Artist=@>>>>>>>>>>>> Price=$@##.##
$album, $artist, $price
..

$album = "Test album";
$artist = "Brit";
$price = "9.99";
write();
================================================================
Output:
$ perl rpt.pl

Album= Artist= Price=$ 0.00
$album, $artist, $price

$
===============================================================
Variables are printed as if they are like static values.

Could you please help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Sri.

 

[John Bokma]

Hello;
I started learning Perl recently and am stuck with the Perl "format"
function.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Program:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use lib '/tmp/perl';
use FileHandle;

format STDOUT =
Album=@<<<<<<<<<<<<< Artist=@>>>>>>>>>>>> Price=$@##.##
$album, $artist, $price
.

$album = "Test album";
$artist = "Brit";
$price = "9.99";
write();
================================================================
Output:
$ perl rpt.pl

Album= Artist= Price=$ 0.00
$album, $artist, $price

$
===============================================================
Variables are printed as if they are like static values.

perl form.pl
Album=Test album Artist= Brit Price=$ 9.99

ActiveState Perl @ XP.

 

[perlUSER]

John,
Could you please let me know what I am missing?

Sri.

 

[perlUSER]

Jim,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. What is the equivalent function
for format or what do you recommend to a learner.

Regards,
Srini.

 

[John Bokma]

John,
Could you please let me know what I am missing?

I really don't know. I haven't used formats for ages, just copied your
example, and it works here. I recommend however to add:

use strict;
use warnings;

There are people who don't look at your code without those two, often for
very good reasons.

As Jim already suggested, have a look at perldoc perlform.

 

[Paul Lalli]

[Please quote some context when you are replying. Thank you.]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. What is the equivalent function
for format or what do you recommend to a learner.

I've never really understood what formats can do that a simple
sprintf() cannot, personally.

Using your example:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $album = "Test album";
my $artist = "Brit";
my $price = "9.99";
printf "Album=%-13s Artist=%12s Price=\$%05.2f\n",
$album, $artist, $price;

__END__
Album=Test album Artist= Brit Price=$09.99

for more information,
perldoc -f sprintf

Hope this helps,
Paul Lalli

 

[ced]

I've never really understood what formats can do that a simple
sprintf() cannot, personally.

I don't recall if sprintf() is as full featured, but formats did
provide
a good visual preview of how the output will be rendered on the page.
Right/left justification and padding tokens were easy to remember and
usually more intuitive than with sprintf.

 

[Darren Dunham]

format STDOUT =
Album=@<<<<<<<<<<<<< Artist=@>>>>>>>>>>>> Price=$@##.##
$album, $artist, $price
.

$ perl rpt.pl

Album= Artist= Price=$ 0.00
$album, $artist, $price

There must be two separate lines under the 'format =' bit. If instead
you have one long line that wraps around on the screen, you would get
that output.

Just cutting and pasting your script into my machine gave me the
expected output. When I joined the two format lines together into one,
I got your output instead.

 

[Darren Dunham]

Paul Lalli wrote:

I don't recall if sprintf() is as full featured, but formats did
provide
a good visual preview of how the output will be rendered on the page.
Right/left justification and padding tokens were easy to remember and
usually more intuitive than with sprintf.

Also, it has some basic page support for standard page lengths. Most
output formats probably don't stick to 66 lines per page any longer, but
I used to use that to good effect...

 

[George]

Hello;
I started learning Perl recently and am stuck with the Perl "format"
function.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Program:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use lib '/tmp/perl';
use FileHandle;

format STDOUT =
Album=@<<<<<<<<<<<<< Artist=@>>>>>>>>>>>> Price=$@##.##
$album, $artist, $price
.

$album = "Test album";
$artist = "Brit";
$price = "9.99";
write();
================================================================
Output:
$ perl rpt.pl

Album= Artist= Price=$ 0.00
$album, $artist, $price

$
===============================================================
Variables are printed as if they are like static values.

Could you please help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Sri.

Though you code works like Bokma says,
but any way try this

use warnings;
use strict;
my ($album,$artist,$price);
format PRINT =
Album=@<<<<<<<<<<<<<, Artist=@<<<<<, Price=$@##.##
$album, $artist, $price
..

$album = "Test album";
$artist = "Brit";
$price = "9.99";
$~="PRINT";
write();

--