Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling.

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

Quick Question...

I'm having issues. All I'm doing is opening a file, finding the data read by STDIN, and prints the found data to the terminal. If the data is not found, I want it to error out, and write STDIN to a log. This should be simple, but I'm obviously doing something wrong, and can't seem to find the err in my ways.. Please take a look at the below code:

The code does use strict and -w, it declares the var's using use vars qw($var);.

sub npa {

    #This purdy little thing searches the NPA-NXX given to STDIN
    #Then it prints the happy little output to the terminal.

    print "\n", " " x 31, "Look Up NPANXX Info\n";
    print " " x 27, "=" x 30, "\n";
    print " " x 30, "Please enter NPANXX:";
    chomp( $cnip = <STDIN> );
    if ( $cnip =~ /\d{6}/ ) {
        &npa1;
    }
    else {
        &err2;
    }

    sub npa1 {
        open( TECH, "</export/home2/knxvcs/knxvcs56/ttu/npalist" )
          || die "Oops : $!";
        while (<TECH>) {
            if ( $cnip / ) {
                (@npa) = split (/\:/);
                print "\n", " " x 14, "*" x 60;

                print "\n", " " x 24, "=" x 40, "\n";
                print " " x 24, "NPANXX   Line   Switch MSR&CUSTGP VMX
+\n";
                print " " x 24,
                  "$npa[0] $npa[1]  $npa[2]    $npa[3] $npa[4]    $npa
+[5]\n";
                print " " x 24, "=" x 40, "\n\n";
                &con;
            }
            else { &err3($cnip) }
        }

        close(TECH);    #Close file
    }
}
[download]

Then err3 sub will put the unfound data from STDIN to a log file like so:

sub err3 {
        #Woah man..
        print "\n" x 2;
        print " " x 20,
          "Selection Not Found! Press <Enter> to Continue";
        <>;
        open(ERRLOG, ">>/export/home2/knxvcs/knxvcs56/ttu/errlog")
        || die "Oops : $!";
        print ERRLOG "$cnip\n";
        close(ERRLOG);
        system("clear");
        menu();
}
[download]

This should be so simple, but I don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong!! If it doesn't find any data, it processes what the else tells it to do, and move on happily, or thats the way I think it should go.. It seems that its not finding any of the data, because even if I put something in that I know is in the data file, it sends me to the &err3 sub, and puts the unfound data into the log file. If I comment out else { &err3($cnip) }, it finds the data that it should happily, and moves on. Like I said IT WORKS When I uncomment the else { &err3($cnip) } line, aside from not erroring out if data isn't found....Am I overlooking something simple? If so, go easy on me, I've had a bad day..

Any ideas??

perl -e '$a="3567"; $b=hex($a); printf("%2X\n",$a);'

edited: ~Sat Jul 13 16:10:32 2002 (GMT)
by footpad: Added <readmore> tag, per Consideration.

Comment on Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jul 11, 2002 at 23:24 UTC
Why did you nest the subroutine definition? That's very odd to read and will break if you add lexicals. Also, please do not call subroutines using an ampersand. Write `err3()` rather than `&err3()`. Anyway.. If I understand your problem description correctly, you want `err3()` to only be called when none of your lines match? The way you have it, it will be called once for every time a line does not match. Is that what you want it to do? If not, the following would work: `my $had_match = 0; #see? now the sub nesting breaks the code.. while (<TECH>) { if ( /$cnip/ ) { $had_match++; (@npa) = split (/\:/); print "\n", " " x 14, "" x 60; print "\n", " " x 24, "=" x 40, "\n"; print " " x 24, "NPANXX Line Switch MSR&CUSTGP VMX +\n"; print " " x 24, "$npa[0] $npa[1] $npa[2] $npa[3] $npa[4] $npa +[5]\n"; print " " x 24, "=" x 40, "\n\n"; con(); } } close(TECH); #Close file err3($cnip) unless $had_match;` [download] Makeshifts last the longest.*	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by dmmiller2k (Chaplain) on Jul 12, 2002 at 13:07 UTC
"... please do not call subroutines using an ampersand. Write err3() rather than &err3()." FYI: this is a special syntax. Calling a subroutine this way from within a subroutine has the effect of passing the (remaining) arguments to the inner sub that were passed to the outer. To wit: `# main outer( 1, qw( A Set of Args )); sub outer { my $pass = shift; &inner if $pass; } sub inner { print "inner: ", join( ' ', @_ ), "\n"; }` [download] will print: `A Set of Args` [download] dmm If you GIVE a man a fish you feed him for a day But, TEACH him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime	[reply] [d/l] [select]
(tye)Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by tye (Sage) on Jul 12, 2002 at 20:47 UTC
Note that you are confusing `&mysub;` and `&mysub();` which are very different. (tye)Re: A question of style goes into these in some detail. As for avoiding & on subroutine calls, that is, to a great extent, a style issue. Frankly, several of the reasons for using & on subroutine calls (avoid collisions with built-ins, stylistically distinguish user subs from built-ins, uniformity of sigils with other common user-defined items) are much more compelling to me than any of the reasons for not using them: "looks like Perl4" (big deal), "overrides prototypes" (don't use prototypes in most cases). So I strongly disagree with Aristotle on that point. - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: (tye)Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by dmmiller2k (Chaplain) on Jul 18, 2002 at 19:45 UTC
Re: Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by defyance (Curate) on Jul 11, 2002 at 23:48 UTC
That did the trick! I got into a bad habit of using ampersands for every call to a sub when I first started learning Perl. I realize that its not always a good idea, especially in a case like this. I nested that for lack of knowing better, put simply. Thanks for the advice, sorry about the confusion in my writeup. And no, I didn't not want it to call everytime a line did not match. I was writing this in a hurry, and intern proved that patience pays off, cause had I been patient, I would not have had this problem!! /me loves learning new stuff everyday, just wish I could spend more time learning more Perl! --~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~-- perl -e '$a="3567"; $b=hex($a); printf("%2X\n",$a);'	[reply]
Re^3: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Jul 14, 2002 at 21:59 UTC
Something I just thought of.. these oodles of `"some string" x $repetition` look rather ugly. Maybe you would profit from learning about Perl's format support? It lets you write report generation routines in a visually oriented way. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]
Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by particle (Vicar) on Jul 11, 2002 at 23:01 UTC
`if ( $cnip / ) {` [download] does what, exactly? ;-) ~Particle accelerates	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by defyance (Curate) on Jul 11, 2002 at 23:06 UTC
Honestly, I have NO idea what that does, its supposed to be `if (/$cnip/) {` Guess I got in too much of a hurry when pasting to see that.. LOL --~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~-- perl -e '$a="3567"; $b=hex($a); printf("%2X\n",$a);'	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by Gerard (Pilgrim) on Jul 11, 2002 at 23:03 UTC
Where is `sub err2` ???	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Is it there, or is it not?? Quirkiness with error handling. by defyance (Curate) on Jul 11, 2002 at 23:10 UTC
Per your request: `sub err2 { #You messed up again... print "\n" x 2; print " " x 14, "Valid Selection Not Entered! Press <Enter> to Continue"; <>; system("clear"); menu(); }` [download] and the other sub that gets called in this snippett in case you want to see it. `sub con { #Gives the option to connect to different system print " " x 34, "Connect To $npa[2]?\n\n"; print " " x 20, "Press v for VM and s for Switch <Enter> To Ex +it:"; chomp( $read = <STDIN> ); if ( $read =~ m/^[sS]/ ) { system( "/usr/bin/wmc/talker", $npa[6] ); } if ( $read =~ m/^[vV]/ ) { system( "/usr/bin/telnet", $npa[7]) + } else { &menu } system("clear"); menu(); }` [download] --~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~--~~-- perl -e '$a="3567"; $b=hex($a); printf("%2X\n",$a);'	[reply] [d/l] [select]


laziness, impatience, and hubris
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