Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines

victorz22 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by BillKSmith (Monsignor) on Apr 18, 2017 at 03:02 UTC
Your code is shown to work with this example. Please post an example that does not! use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my $inputFile = \do{ "Omit this line \n" . "Foo SEARCH Part 1 \n" . "Part 2 \n" . "Part 3 TEST bar \n" . "Omit this line\n" }; my $beginString = "SEARCH"; my $endString = "TEST"; my $fileContent; open(my $fileHandler, '<', $inputFile) or die "Could not open file $! +"; { local $/; $fileContent = <$fileHandler>; } close($fileHandler); if($fileContent =~ /\b$beginString\b(.*?)\b$endString\b/s){ my $result = $1; print $result, "\n\n"; } print Dumper($fileContent); OUTPUT: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 $VAR1 = 'Omit this line Foo SEARCH Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 TEST bar Omit this line '; [download] Now do you understand "post an example"? Bill	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by kennethk (Abbot) on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:43 UTC
This appears to meet your spec: `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use 5.10.0; use Data::Dumper; my $beginString = "SEARCH"; my $endString = "TEST"; my $fileContent; { local $/; $fileContent = <DATA>; } if($fileContent =~ /\b$beginString\b(.?)\b$endString\b/s){ my $result = $1; print $result; } #print Dumper($fileContent); __DATA__ #Ignoring this SEARCH => #Beginning of data I need ....... ........ #all the data I need ....... ..... #End of Data I Need TEST => # And ignoring this` [download] Given that it's largely taken from your posted code, I wonder if you accidentally fixed your issue in preparing the post. If this does not output what you need, please describe how. Sidenote 1:* `my $fileContent; open(my $fileHandler, $inputFile) or die "Could not open file '$inputF +ile' $!"; { local $/; $fileContent = <$fileHandler>; } close($fileHandler);` [download] You can rewrite this as `my $fileContent = do { open(my $fileHandler, $inputFile) or die "Could not open file '$in +putFile' $!"; local $/; <$fileHandler>; };` [download] and avoid scoping challenges on that file handle. Sidenote 2: When using start/finish tags, assuming you want literals, you should quotemeta: `if($fileContent =~ /\b\Q$beginString\E\b(.*?)\b\Q$endString\E\b/s){` [download] #11929 First ask yourself `How would I do this without a computer?' Then have the computer do it the same way.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by victorz22 (Sexton) on Apr 17, 2017 at 22:33 UTC
Thanks your code helped out!	[reply]
Re: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by Corion (Patriarch) on Apr 17, 2017 at 20:55 UTC
Can you show us a short example of input that fails to work but should work in your opinion?	[reply]
Re^2: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by victorz22 (Sexton) on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:00 UTC
im sorry but im not really sure what you are asking for.	[reply]
Re^3: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by Anonymous Monk on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:05 UTC
A short example of input that fails to work but should work in your opinion.	[reply]
Re^4: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by victorz22 (Sexton) on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:09 UTC
Re: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by Anonymous Monk on Apr 18, 2017 at 00:55 UTC
What output do you expect to see from this input? `'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves SEARCH Did gyre and gimble in the wabe SEARCH All mimsy were the borogoves TEST And the mome raths outgrabe` [download] Reasonable that you might want to see just the borogoves, but the solutions people have given will print the wabe as well.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by victorz22 (Sexton) on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:19 UTC
So the output i am getting gathers everything up to the $endString but fails to ignore everything before the $beginString. `SEARCH => #Beginning of data I need ....... ........ #all the data I need ....... ..... #End of Data I Need TEST =>` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by Anonymous Monk on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:23 UTC
`my $beginString = "SEARCH"; my $endString = "TEST"; my $fileContent; open(my $fileHandler, $inputFile) or die "no read '$inputFile' $!\n"; while (<$fileHandler>) { print if /$beginString/ .. /$endString/; } close $fileHandler;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by victorz22 (Sexton) on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:32 UTC
That didn't work the output i got was just the whole file, i even tried to put an 's' at the end of it for many lines but that didn't work either.	[reply]
Re^4: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by LanX (Saint) on Apr 17, 2017 at 21:56 UTC
Re: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by victorz22 (Sexton) on Apr 17, 2017 at 22:46 UTC
Thanks For the help but the ou put was the same. The script failed to ignore everything before the $beginString and it succeeded in removing everything after the $endString. Both of these strings are indented so i am wondering if the blank space is getting in the way of matching the string. Here is what the output looks like and my new code after the recommended modifications. `The failed output looks like this ........... #data i want ignored, that the program fails to remove ........... ........... SEARCH => #Beginning of data I need .......... .......... .......... #End of data I need, The program successfully removes +the data below this line TEST =>` [download] `my $beginString = "SEARCH"; my $endString = "TEST"; my $fileContent = do { open(my $fileHandle, $inputFile) or die "Could not open file '$inp +utFile' $!"; local $/; <$fileHandle>; }; if($fileContent =~ /\b\Q$beginString\E\b(.*?)\b\Q$endString\E\b/s){ my $result = $1; print $result; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Perl reading in a file and getting a string in between two strings on different lines by NetWallah (Canon) on Apr 17, 2017 at 23:06 UTC
Both kennethk's code and your code work correctly for me, truncating the top and bottom parts, with indentation. Perhaps the code you are editing may not be the same as the one you are running ???.... ...Disinformation is not as good as datinformation. Don't document the program; program the document.	[reply]


P is for Practical
	PerlMonks