One solution to your problem:

• use unpack to get your data out into an array
• slice the array to discard the values you dont want
• join the array with pipes

open (OUTFILE, >$file) or die;
while (<FILE>) {
    my @ary = unpack('A35 A30 A15', $_);
    my @tmp = @ary[0..4];
    print OUTFILE (join '|', @tmp);
}
close OUTFILE, FILE;
[download]

I'd do it something like this (trying to reconstruct the spec by reverse engineering your script):

open(INFILE, $file) or die "Can't open $file: $!\n";
open(OUTFILE, $file) or die "Can't open $outfile: $!\n";

# widths of the cols
my @cols = qw(3 50 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 55 4 41 6 23 7 169);
# build unpack format
my $fmt = join '', map { "A$_" } @cols;

# column names
my @col_names = qw(mfg model spec1 spec2 spec3 spec4 opt1
                   opt2 opt3 opt4 desc qoh trash1 mult
                   trash2 list trash3);

while (<INFILE>) {
  my %rec;

  $rec{@col_names} = unpack $fmt, $_;

  next if $rec{model} = 'COMPONENT PARTS';

  print OUTFILE join('|', $rec{@col_names})
}
[download]

Which looks a bit simpler than your version :)

"Perl makes the fun jobs fun
and the boring jobs bearable" - me

Basic Technique: read the records in, trim them, then use perlfunc:join to generate the output form. Probably your best bet is to read in each line, put all the 'keeper' fields into an array, then loop through the array and print the joined array out to a file. Here's one, relatively easily grokkable way to do it:

# for each line, 
# get fields you're keeping, put them into @fields
# in the proper order

foreach my $field (@fields) {
    $field =~ s/^\s*(.*?)\s*$/; # trim whitespace -- but beware!
    # two-command version (see the FAQ in perlfaq)
    # $field =~ s/^\s*//;
    # $field =~ s/\s*$//;
}

print OUTPUTFILEHANDLE join "|" @fields;
# now process the next line
[download]

HTH

Philosophy can be made out of anything. Or less -- Jerry A. Fodor

($part_code, $part_size, $part_size2, $quantity, $cryptic_field) = unp
+ack ("A54 A7 A7 A10 A5", $line_from_file);
print OUT join ("|", ($partcode, $part_size2, $part_size));
[download]

     # Define the format of the file
     my (@file_format) = (
           0,
           3,
          53,
          60,
          67,
          74,
        # etc.
        241+169, # Last position, presumably
     );
[download]

     my (@field_data);
     for (my $i = 0; $i < $#file_format; $i++)
     {
           $field_data[$i] = substr($_,
                                    $file_format[$i],
                                    $file_format[$i+1]-
                                    $file_format[$i]);
           # Clean up as required, by trimming
           $field_data[$i] =~ s/\s+$//;
     }
     print OUT_FILE join('|', @field_data);
[download]

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my @record_layout = qw(
   state_code
   place_code
   state_alpha_code
   class_code
   place_name
   county_code
   county_name
   zip_code
);

my %field_types = (
   state_code        => 'A2',
   place_code        => 'A5',
   state_alpha_code  => 'A2',
   class_code        => 'A2',
   place_name        => 'A52',
   county_code       => 'A3',
   county_name       => 'A22',
   zip_code          => 'A5'
);
my %fips_data;

my $fips_template = join(" ", @field_types{@record_layout});

while(my $fips_line = <>){
   @fips_data{@record_layout} = unpack($fips_template, $fips_line);
   next if $fips_data{'state_code'} == 52;
   print STDOUT join('|', @fips_data{@record_layout});
}
[download]

Thanks,
Mike

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen... and stupidity."
Harlan Ellison

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention, I was only using "A" data types, but this method would work for any type of fixed records with binary or other embedded data types in it, just simply change the field types for the record layout...

Mike

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen... and stupidity."
Harlan Ellison

It would be useful, if you told us what exactly is not working. A quick glance at your code shows that you got a somewhat un-perlish writing ;-)

Maybe you should make yourself comfortable with the split() command. You could do something like

($field1, $field2, undef, undef ...) = split /\s+/, $line;
[download]

Regards

Stefan K