Concatentation

[Daniel Bergquist]

Consider the following chunk of code:
--------------------------------------------------
open (IN, "<:raw", "test2.txt") or die "Can't open test.txt";

chomp($line = <IN>);

# Capture excerpt
$line =~ m/>([^<]+)/;

# Copy first line of excerpt
$pExcerpt = $1;

# Next line
chomp($line = <IN>);

# Untill we have reached the end of the section
until($line =~ m/<\/p>/i) {

# Capture useful text
$line =~ m/([^<]+)/;
chomp($line = <IN>);
}

# Capture the rest of the useful text
$line =~ m/([^<]+)/;

$pExcerpt = "$pExcerpt $1";

print "final: $pExcerpt\n";
-----------------------------------------------------------



The file test2.txt is as follows:
-------------------------------------------------
<p class=p1>I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I
make my
defense against all the accusations of the Jews. <i>Acts 26:2</i></p>


----------------------------------------------

When run:
P:\WEBPOP\EXPERI~1>excerpt.pl
defense against all the accusations of the Jews. you today as I make
my

P:\WEBPOP\EXPERI~1>


When I change the concatenation to as follows:
$pExcerpt = "$1 $pExcerpt";
The result is:
P:\WEBPOP\EXPERI~1>excerpt.pl
final: defense against all the accusations of the Jews. I consider
myself fortunate
to stand before you today as I make my

P:\WEBPOP\EXPERI~1>

Which is how I would expect it to work. Why does it not work the first
way(which is the way I need it)?


Perl reports itself as v5.8.3 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread,
binary build 809 provided by ActiveState Corp.


Thanks!

Daniel Bergquist

 

[Tad McClellan]

Consider the following chunk of code:
--------------------------------------------------
open (IN, "<:raw", "test2.txt") or die "Can't open test.txt";

chomp($line = <IN>);

# Capture excerpt
$line =~ m/>([^<]+)/;

# Copy first line of excerpt
$pExcerpt = $1;

You should never use the dollar-digit variables unless you have
first ensured that the match *succeeded*, since the variables
are only changed when the match succeeds.


$pExcerpt = $1 if $line =~ m/>([^<]+)/;


( I hope you are not trying to parse HTML or XML with regular expressions...)

# Next line
chomp($line = <IN>);

# Untill we have reached the end of the section
until($line =~ m/<\/p>/i) {

You should use a module that understands HTML for processing HTML data.

# Capture useful text
$line =~ m/([^<]+)/;

The above line of code is useless. You don't put the captured text anywhere.

What do you think that pattern match is doing for you?

chomp($line = <IN>);
}

# Capture the rest of the useful text
$line =~ m/([^<]+)/;

$pExcerpt = "$pExcerpt $1";

$pExcerpt .= " $1";

Why does it not work the first
way(which is the way I need it)?

It won't matter if you process it properly (with an HTML module rather
than with regexes).

 

[Daniel Bergquist]

# Capture useful text

$line =~ m/([^<]+)/;

The above line of code is useless. You don't put the captured text anywhere.

What do you think that pattern match is doing for you?

Heh, sorry, I had cut out a bunch of code and this is a work in
progress so some lines don't look useful at the moment.

chomp($line = <IN>);
}

# Capture the rest of the useful text
$line =~ m/([^<]+)/;

$pExcerpt = "$pExcerpt $1";

$pExcerpt .= " $1";

Why does it not work the first
way(which is the way I need it)?

It won't matter if you process it properly (with an HTML module rather
than with regexes).

Opps, after a couple Google searches I know realize I have committed a
crime against the Perl community. Pardon me as I have been using Perl
only for a few months. Although I have found the modules HTML:arser
and HTML::TokeParser I am not entirely sure which to use and I would
like to read through a tutorial or two.


Thanks!

Daniel Bergquist

 

[Daniel Bergquist]

Nevermind, I think I'm figuring one of the parsers out.

Thanks!


Daniel Bergquist

 

[Daniel Bergquist]

Nevermind, I think I'm figuring one of the parsers out.

Thanks!


Daniel Bergquist