This is a good point.

If you are using \r\n and still seeing the squares, here is what I would recommend:

Create the file, copy it to the Windows box, then transfer the same file back to the *nix environment. Once back in the *nix environment, open it with a simple editor like vi(m) or something similar. In most cases, you will see any wierd control/Windows/Unix characters that might have gotten mixed in while transferring.

If nothing shows up, I would simply make sure you are using \r\n

---hA||ta----
print map{$_.' '}grep{/\w+/}@{[reverse(qw{Perl Code})]} or die while ( 'trying' );

While that might work, I don't have the liberty of copying the file back and forth between environments. I need to provide the user with a downloadable version of the file that will look as it should (i.e. - no squares).

I've tried to swap \n for \r\n

Like people have said, this should have worked. Notepad expects \r\n for line ends. Either 1) your file didn't use \n for line ends originally, or 2) you convertion code has a bug (and you probably ended up with \r\r\n).

A simple one liner to convert from \n to \r\n (when run from a Windows machine) is:

perl -pe1 infile > outfile
[download]

open(my $fh_in, '<', $file_in)
   or die("Unable to open $file_in: $!\n");

open(my $fh_out, '>', $file_out)
   or die("Unable to create $file_out: $!\n");

print $fh_out $_
   while <$fh_in>;
[download]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I need a Perl solution.

You've got a bad assumption somewhere. "\r\n" on a unix-y perl will positively give you valid DOS carriage control. Open your file with a hex editor and you'll see something other than hex "0d0a" there for sure. That's the best way to shoot your problem.

I viewed the file and the double squares do equate to 0D0A. That's what it's supposed to be right?

Yes. x'0D0A' is valid DOS carriage control. But notepad shouldn't be putting up boxes for it. Any chance you can post your text file somewhere so others can test it? Or, maybe you can reproduce the problem w/ non-sensitive data.

It does, but I can't rely on everyone knowing that. Even if only one person attempts to open in Notepad and sees a bunch of squares and mashed together text, that's one too many in this case.

Hi,

the "\r\n" should work for you.. it does for me (TM). As for the notepad/wordpad... save it in the extension of ".wri" which is assocated with wordpad by default.

hope this helps

Jason L. Froebe

Team Sybase member

No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts. - Jack O'Neil, Stargate SG-1

I'm probably going to get massive downvotes for this, but those little boxes, in my experience, mean that there are no glyphs associated with the character codes. (added in edit) Incorrect end-of-line markers (end of addition) That typically result in the text being squished onto one line; if you're "flooded with little squares" I don't think that the problem is the end-of-line markers.

Have you tried a) changing the font in Notepad, so see if the little boxes go away, b) opening the document in another editor see if the problem is unique to Notepad or c) explicitly creating the document in UTF-8?