1677 lines
53 KiB
Plaintext
1677 lines
53 KiB
Plaintext
=head1 NAME
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perlfaq4 - Data Manipulation ($Revision: 1.40 $, $Date: 1999/01/08 04:26:39 $)
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=head1 DESCRIPTION
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The section of the FAQ answers question related to the manipulation
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of data as numbers, dates, strings, arrays, hashes, and miscellaneous
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data issues.
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=head1 Data: Numbers
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=head2 Why am I getting long decimals (eg, 19.9499999999999) instead of the numbers I should be getting (eg, 19.95)?
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The infinite set that a mathematician thinks of as the real numbers can
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only be approximate on a computer, since the computer only has a finite
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number of bits to store an infinite number of, um, numbers.
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Internally, your computer represents floating-point numbers in binary.
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Floating-point numbers read in from a file or appearing as literals
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in your program are converted from their decimal floating-point
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representation (eg, 19.95) to the internal binary representation.
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However, 19.95 can't be precisely represented as a binary
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floating-point number, just like 1/3 can't be exactly represented as a
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decimal floating-point number. The computer's binary representation
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of 19.95, therefore, isn't exactly 19.95.
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When a floating-point number gets printed, the binary floating-point
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representation is converted back to decimal. These decimal numbers
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are displayed in either the format you specify with printf(), or the
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current output format for numbers (see L<perlvar/"$#"> if you use
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print. C<$#> has a different default value in Perl5 than it did in
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Perl4. Changing C<$#> yourself is deprecated.
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This affects B<all> computer languages that represent decimal
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floating-point numbers in binary, not just Perl. Perl provides
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arbitrary-precision decimal numbers with the Math::BigFloat module
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(part of the standard Perl distribution), but mathematical operations
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are consequently slower.
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To get rid of the superfluous digits, just use a format (eg,
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C<printf("%.2f", 19.95)>) to get the required precision.
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See L<perlop/"Floating-point Arithmetic">.
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=head2 Why isn't my octal data interpreted correctly?
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Perl only understands octal and hex numbers as such when they occur
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as literals in your program. If they are read in from somewhere and
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assigned, no automatic conversion takes place. You must explicitly
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use oct() or hex() if you want the values converted. oct() interprets
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both hex ("0x350") numbers and octal ones ("0350" or even without the
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leading "0", like "377"), while hex() only converts hexadecimal ones,
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with or without a leading "0x", like "0x255", "3A", "ff", or "deadbeef".
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This problem shows up most often when people try using chmod(), mkdir(),
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umask(), or sysopen(), which all want permissions in octal.
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chmod(644, $file); # WRONG -- perl -w catches this
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chmod(0644, $file); # right
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=head2 Does Perl have a round() function? What about ceil() and floor()? Trig functions?
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Remember that int() merely truncates toward 0. For rounding to a
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certain number of digits, sprintf() or printf() is usually the easiest
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route.
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printf("%.3f", 3.1415926535); # prints 3.142
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The POSIX module (part of the standard perl distribution) implements
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ceil(), floor(), and a number of other mathematical and trigonometric
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functions.
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use POSIX;
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$ceil = ceil(3.5); # 4
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$floor = floor(3.5); # 3
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In 5.000 to 5.003 Perls, trigonometry was done in the Math::Complex
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module. With 5.004, the Math::Trig module (part of the standard perl
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distribution) implements the trigonometric functions. Internally it
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uses the Math::Complex module and some functions can break out from
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the real axis into the complex plane, for example the inverse sine of
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2.
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Rounding in financial applications can have serious implications, and
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the rounding method used should be specified precisely. In these
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cases, it probably pays not to trust whichever system rounding is
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being used by Perl, but to instead implement the rounding function you
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need yourself.
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To see why, notice how you'll still have an issue on half-way-point
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alternation:
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for ($i = 0; $i < 1.01; $i += 0.05) { printf "%.1f ",$i}
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0.0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.7
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0.8 0.8 0.9 0.9 1.0 1.0
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Don't blame Perl. It's the same as in C. IEEE says we have to do this.
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Perl numbers whose absolute values are integers under 2**31 (on 32 bit
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machines) will work pretty much like mathematical integers. Other numbers
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are not guaranteed.
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=head2 How do I convert bits into ints?
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To turn a string of 1s and 0s like C<10110110> into a scalar containing
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its binary value, use the pack() function (documented in
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L<perlfunc/"pack">):
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$decimal = pack('B8', '10110110');
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Here's an example of going the other way:
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$binary_string = join('', unpack('B*', "\x29"));
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=head2 Why doesn't & work the way I want it to?
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The behavior of binary arithmetic operators depends on whether they're
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used on numbers or strings. The operators treat a string as a series
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of bits and work with that (the string C<"3"> is the bit pattern
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C<00110011>). The operators work with the binary form of a number
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(the number C<3> is treated as the bit pattern C<00000011>).
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So, saying C<11 & 3> performs the "and" operation on numbers (yielding
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C<1>). Saying C<"11" & "3"> performs the "and" operation on strings
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(yielding C<"1">).
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Most problems with C<&> and C<|> arise because the programmer thinks
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they have a number but really it's a string. The rest arise because
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the programmer says:
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if ("\020\020" & "\101\101") {
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# ...
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}
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but a string consisting of two null bytes (the result of C<"\020\020"
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& "\101\101">) is not a false value in Perl. You need:
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if ( ("\020\020" & "\101\101") !~ /[^\000]/) {
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# ...
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}
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=head2 How do I multiply matrices?
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Use the Math::Matrix or Math::MatrixReal modules (available from CPAN)
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or the PDL extension (also available from CPAN).
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=head2 How do I perform an operation on a series of integers?
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To call a function on each element in an array, and collect the
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results, use:
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@results = map { my_func($_) } @array;
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For example:
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@triple = map { 3 * $_ } @single;
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To call a function on each element of an array, but ignore the
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results:
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foreach $iterator (@array) {
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some_func($iterator);
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}
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To call a function on each integer in a (small) range, you B<can> use:
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@results = map { some_func($_) } (5 .. 25);
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but you should be aware that the C<..> operator creates an array of
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all integers in the range. This can take a lot of memory for large
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ranges. Instead use:
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@results = ();
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for ($i=5; $i < 500_005; $i++) {
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push(@results, some_func($i));
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}
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=head2 How can I output Roman numerals?
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Get the http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Roman module.
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=head2 Why aren't my random numbers random?
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If you're using a version of Perl before 5.004, you must call C<srand>
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once at the start of your program to seed the random number generator.
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5.004 and later automatically call C<srand> at the beginning. Don't
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call C<srand> more than once--you make your numbers less random, rather
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than more.
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Computers are good at being predictable and bad at being random
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(despite appearances caused by bugs in your programs :-).
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http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FMTEYEWTK/random, courtesy of Tom
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Phoenix, talks more about this.. John von Neumann said, ``Anyone who
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attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of
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course, living in a state of sin.''
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If you want numbers that are more random than C<rand> with C<srand>
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provides, you should also check out the Math::TrulyRandom module from
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CPAN. It uses the imperfections in your system's timer to generate
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random numbers, but this takes quite a while. If you want a better
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pseudorandom generator than comes with your operating system, look at
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``Numerical Recipes in C'' at http://www.nr.com/ .
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=head1 Data: Dates
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=head2 How do I find the week-of-the-year/day-of-the-year?
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The day of the year is in the array returned by localtime() (see
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L<perlfunc/"localtime">):
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$day_of_year = (localtime(time()))[7];
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or more legibly (in 5.004 or higher):
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use Time::localtime;
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$day_of_year = localtime(time())->yday;
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You can find the week of the year by dividing this by 7:
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$week_of_year = int($day_of_year / 7);
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Of course, this believes that weeks start at zero. The Date::Calc
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module from CPAN has a lot of date calculation functions, including
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day of the year, week of the year, and so on. Note that not
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all businesses consider ``week 1'' to be the same; for example,
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American businesses often consider the first week with a Monday
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in it to be Work Week #1, despite ISO 8601, which considers
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WW1 to be the first week with a Thursday in it.
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=head2 How can I compare two dates and find the difference?
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If you're storing your dates as epoch seconds then simply subtract one
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from the other. If you've got a structured date (distinct year, day,
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month, hour, minute, seconds values) then use one of the Date::Manip
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and Date::Calc modules from CPAN.
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=head2 How can I take a string and turn it into epoch seconds?
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If it's a regular enough string that it always has the same format,
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you can split it up and pass the parts to C<timelocal> in the standard
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Time::Local module. Otherwise, you should look into the Date::Calc
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and Date::Manip modules from CPAN.
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=head2 How can I find the Julian Day?
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Neither Date::Manip nor Date::Calc deal with Julian days. Instead,
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there is an example of Julian date calculation that should help you in
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Time::JulianDay (part of the Time-modules bundle) which can be found at
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http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Time/.
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=head2 How do I find yesterday's date?
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The C<time()> function returns the current time in seconds since the
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epoch. Take one day off that:
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$yesterday = time() - ( 24 * 60 * 60 );
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Then you can pass this to C<localtime()> and get the individual year,
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month, day, hour, minute, seconds values.
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=head2 Does Perl have a year 2000 problem? Is Perl Y2K compliant?
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Short answer: No, Perl does not have a Year 2000 problem. Yes, Perl is
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Y2K compliant (whatever that means). The programmers you've hired to
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use it, however, probably are not.
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Long answer: The question belies a true understanding of the issue.
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Perl is just as Y2K compliant as your pencil--no more, and no less.
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Can you use your pencil to write a non-Y2K-compliant memo? Of course
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you can. Is that the pencil's fault? Of course it isn't.
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The date and time functions supplied with perl (gmtime and localtime)
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supply adequate information to determine the year well beyond 2000
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(2038 is when trouble strikes for 32-bit machines). The year returned
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by these functions when used in an array context is the year minus 1900.
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For years between 1910 and 1999 this I<happens> to be a 2-digit decimal
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number. To avoid the year 2000 problem simply do not treat the year as
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a 2-digit number. It isn't.
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When gmtime() and localtime() are used in scalar context they return
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a timestamp string that contains a fully-expanded year. For example,
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C<$timestamp = gmtime(1005613200)> sets $timestamp to "Tue Nov 13 01:00:00
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2001". There's no year 2000 problem here.
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That doesn't mean that Perl can't be used to create non-Y2K compliant
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programs. It can. But so can your pencil. It's the fault of the user,
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not the language. At the risk of inflaming the NRA: ``Perl doesn't
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break Y2K, people do.'' See http://language.perl.com/news/y2k.html for
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a longer exposition.
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=head1 Data: Strings
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=head2 How do I validate input?
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The answer to this question is usually a regular expression, perhaps
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with auxiliary logic. See the more specific questions (numbers, mail
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addresses, etc.) for details.
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=head2 How do I unescape a string?
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It depends just what you mean by ``escape''. URL escapes are dealt
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with in L<perlfaq9>. Shell escapes with the backslash (C<\>)
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character are removed with:
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s/\\(.)/$1/g;
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This won't expand C<"\n"> or C<"\t"> or any other special escapes.
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=head2 How do I remove consecutive pairs of characters?
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To turn C<"abbcccd"> into C<"abccd">:
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s/(.)\1/$1/g;
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=head2 How do I expand function calls in a string?
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This is documented in L<perlref>. In general, this is fraught with
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quoting and readability problems, but it is possible. To interpolate
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a subroutine call (in list context) into a string:
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print "My sub returned @{[mysub(1,2,3)]} that time.\n";
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If you prefer scalar context, similar chicanery is also useful for
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arbitrary expressions:
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print "That yields ${\($n + 5)} widgets\n";
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Version 5.004 of Perl had a bug that gave list context to the
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expression in C<${...}>, but this is fixed in version 5.005.
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See also ``How can I expand variables in text strings?'' in this
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section of the FAQ.
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=head2 How do I find matching/nesting anything?
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This isn't something that can be done in one regular expression, no
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matter how complicated. To find something between two single
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characters, a pattern like C</x([^x]*)x/> will get the intervening
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bits in $1. For multiple ones, then something more like
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C</alpha(.*?)omega/> would be needed. But none of these deals with
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nested patterns, nor can they. For that you'll have to write a
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parser.
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If you are serious about writing a parser, there are a number of
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modules or oddities that will make your life a lot easier. There is
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the CPAN module Parse::RecDescent, the standard module Text::Balanced,
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the byacc program, the CPAN module Parse::Yapp, and Mark-Jason
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Dominus's excellent I<py> tool at http://www.plover.com/~mjd/perl/py/
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.
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One simple destructive, inside-out approach that you might try is to
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pull out the smallest nesting parts one at a time:
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while (s//BEGIN((?:(?!BEGIN)(?!END).)*)END/gs) {
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# do something with $1
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}
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A more complicated and sneaky approach is to make Perl's regular
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expression engine do it for you. This is courtesy Dean Inada, and
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rather has the nature of an Obfuscated Perl Contest entry, but it
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really does work:
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# $_ contains the string to parse
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# BEGIN and END are the opening and closing markers for the
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# nested text.
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@( = ('(','');
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@) = (')','');
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($re=$_)=~s/((BEGIN)|(END)|.)/$)[!$3]\Q$1\E$([!$2]/gs;
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@$ = (eval{/$re/},$@!~/unmatched/);
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print join("\n",@$[0..$#$]) if( $$[-1] );
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=head2 How do I reverse a string?
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Use reverse() in scalar context, as documented in
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L<perlfunc/reverse>.
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$reversed = reverse $string;
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=head2 How do I expand tabs in a string?
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You can do it yourself:
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1 while $string =~ s/\t+/' ' x (length($&) * 8 - length($`) % 8)/e;
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Or you can just use the Text::Tabs module (part of the standard perl
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distribution).
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use Text::Tabs;
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@expanded_lines = expand(@lines_with_tabs);
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=head2 How do I reformat a paragraph?
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Use Text::Wrap (part of the standard perl distribution):
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use Text::Wrap;
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print wrap("\t", ' ', @paragraphs);
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The paragraphs you give to Text::Wrap should not contain embedded
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newlines. Text::Wrap doesn't justify the lines (flush-right).
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=head2 How can I access/change the first N letters of a string?
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There are many ways. If you just want to grab a copy, use
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substr():
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$first_byte = substr($a, 0, 1);
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If you want to modify part of a string, the simplest way is often to
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use substr() as an lvalue:
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substr($a, 0, 3) = "Tom";
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Although those with a pattern matching kind of thought process will
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likely prefer:
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$a =~ s/^.../Tom/;
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=head2 How do I change the Nth occurrence of something?
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You have to keep track of N yourself. For example, let's say you want
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to change the fifth occurrence of C<"whoever"> or C<"whomever"> into
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C<"whosoever"> or C<"whomsoever">, case insensitively.
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$count = 0;
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s{((whom?)ever)}{
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++$count == 5 # is it the 5th?
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? "${2}soever" # yes, swap
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: $1 # renege and leave it there
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}igex;
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In the more general case, you can use the C</g> modifier in a C<while>
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loop, keeping count of matches.
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$WANT = 3;
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$count = 0;
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while (/(\w+)\s+fish\b/gi) {
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if (++$count == $WANT) {
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print "The third fish is a $1 one.\n";
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# Warning: don't `last' out of this loop
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}
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}
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That prints out: C<"The third fish is a red one."> You can also use a
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repetition count and repeated pattern like this:
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/(?:\w+\s+fish\s+){2}(\w+)\s+fish/i;
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=head2 How can I count the number of occurrences of a substring within a string?
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There are a number of ways, with varying efficiency: If you want a
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count of a certain single character (X) within a string, you can use the
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C<tr///> function like so:
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$string = "ThisXlineXhasXsomeXx'sXinXit";
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$count = ($string =~ tr/X//);
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print "There are $count X charcters in the string";
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This is fine if you are just looking for a single character. However,
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if you are trying to count multiple character substrings within a
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larger string, C<tr///> won't work. What you can do is wrap a while()
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loop around a global pattern match. For example, let's count negative
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integers:
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$string = "-9 55 48 -2 23 -76 4 14 -44";
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while ($string =~ /-\d+/g) { $count++ }
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print "There are $count negative numbers in the string";
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=head2 How do I capitalize all the words on one line?
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To make the first letter of each word upper case:
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$line =~ s/\b(\w)/\U$1/g;
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This has the strange effect of turning "C<don't do it>" into "C<Don'T
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Do It>". Sometimes you might want this, instead (Suggested by Brian
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Foy):
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$string =~ s/ (
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(^\w) #at the beginning of the line
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| # or
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(\s\w) #preceded by whitespace
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)
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/\U$1/xg;
|
|
$string =~ /([\w']+)/\u\L$1/g;
|
|
|
|
To make the whole line upper case:
|
|
|
|
$line = uc($line);
|
|
|
|
To force each word to be lower case, with the first letter upper case:
|
|
|
|
$line =~ s/(\w+)/\u\L$1/g;
|
|
|
|
You can (and probably should) enable locale awareness of those
|
|
characters by placing a C<use locale> pragma in your program.
|
|
See L<perllocale> for endless details on locales.
|
|
|
|
This is sometimes referred to as putting something into "title
|
|
case", but that's not quite accurate. Consdier the proper
|
|
capitalization of the movie I<Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to
|
|
Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb>, for example.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I split a [character] delimited string except when inside
|
|
[character]? (Comma-separated files)
|
|
|
|
Take the example case of trying to split a string that is comma-separated
|
|
into its different fields. (We'll pretend you said comma-separated, not
|
|
comma-delimited, which is different and almost never what you mean.) You
|
|
can't use C<split(/,/)> because you shouldn't split if the comma is inside
|
|
quotes. For example, take a data line like this:
|
|
|
|
SAR001,"","Cimetrix, Inc","Bob Smith","CAM",N,8,1,0,7,"Error, Core Dumped"
|
|
|
|
Due to the restriction of the quotes, this is a fairly complex
|
|
problem. Thankfully, we have Jeffrey Friedl, author of a highly
|
|
recommended book on regular expressions, to handle these for us. He
|
|
suggests (assuming your string is contained in $text):
|
|
|
|
@new = ();
|
|
push(@new, $+) while $text =~ m{
|
|
"([^\"\\]*(?:\\.[^\"\\]*)*)",? # groups the phrase inside the quotes
|
|
| ([^,]+),?
|
|
| ,
|
|
}gx;
|
|
push(@new, undef) if substr($text,-1,1) eq ',';
|
|
|
|
If you want to represent quotation marks inside a
|
|
quotation-mark-delimited field, escape them with backslashes (eg,
|
|
C<"like \"this\"">. Unescaping them is a task addressed earlier in
|
|
this section.
|
|
|
|
Alternatively, the Text::ParseWords module (part of the standard perl
|
|
distribution) lets you say:
|
|
|
|
use Text::ParseWords;
|
|
@new = quotewords(",", 0, $text);
|
|
|
|
There's also a Text::CSV module on CPAN.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I strip blank space from the beginning/end of a string?
|
|
|
|
Although the simplest approach would seem to be:
|
|
|
|
$string =~ s/^\s*(.*?)\s*$/$1/;
|
|
|
|
This is unnecessarily slow, destructive, and fails with embedded newlines.
|
|
It is much better faster to do this in two steps:
|
|
|
|
$string =~ s/^\s+//;
|
|
$string =~ s/\s+$//;
|
|
|
|
Or more nicely written as:
|
|
|
|
for ($string) {
|
|
s/^\s+//;
|
|
s/\s+$//;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
This idiom takes advantage of the C<foreach> loop's aliasing
|
|
behavior to factor out common code. You can do this
|
|
on several strings at once, or arrays, or even the
|
|
values of a hash if you use a slide:
|
|
|
|
# trim whitespace in the scalar, the array,
|
|
# and all the values in the hash
|
|
foreach ($scalar, @array, @hash{keys %hash}) {
|
|
s/^\s+//;
|
|
s/\s+$//;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I pad a string with blanks or pad a number with zeroes?
|
|
|
|
(This answer contributed by Uri Guttman)
|
|
|
|
In the following examples, C<$pad_len> is the length to which you wish
|
|
to pad the string, C<$text> or C<$num> contains the string to be
|
|
padded, and C<$pad_char> contains the padding character. You can use a
|
|
single character string constant instead of the C<$pad_char> variable
|
|
if you know what it is in advance.
|
|
|
|
The simplest method use the C<sprintf> function. It can pad on the
|
|
left or right with blanks and on the left with zeroes.
|
|
|
|
# Left padding with blank:
|
|
$padded = sprintf( "%${pad_len}s", $text ) ;
|
|
|
|
# Right padding with blank:
|
|
$padded = sprintf( "%${pad_len}s", $text ) ;
|
|
|
|
# Left padding with 0:
|
|
$padded = sprintf( "%0${pad_len}d", $num ) ;
|
|
|
|
If you need to pad with a character other than blank or zero you can use
|
|
one of the following methods.
|
|
|
|
These methods generate a pad string with the C<x> operator and
|
|
concatenate that with the original text.
|
|
|
|
Left and right padding with any character:
|
|
|
|
$padded = $pad_char x ( $pad_len - length( $text ) ) . $text ;
|
|
$padded = $text . $pad_char x ( $pad_len - length( $text ) ) ;
|
|
|
|
Or you can left or right pad $text directly:
|
|
|
|
$text .= $pad_char x ( $pad_len - length( $text ) ) ;
|
|
substr( $text, 0, 0 ) = $pad_char x ( $pad_len - length( $text ) ) ;
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I extract selected columns from a string?
|
|
|
|
Use substr() or unpack(), both documented in L<perlfunc>.
|
|
If you prefer thinking in terms of columns instead of widths,
|
|
you can use this kind of thing:
|
|
|
|
# determine the unpack format needed to split Linux ps output
|
|
# arguments are cut columns
|
|
my $fmt = cut2fmt(8, 14, 20, 26, 30, 34, 41, 47, 59, 63, 67, 72);
|
|
|
|
sub cut2fmt {
|
|
my(@positions) = @_;
|
|
my $template = '';
|
|
my $lastpos = 1;
|
|
for my $place (@positions) {
|
|
$template .= "A" . ($place - $lastpos) . " ";
|
|
$lastpos = $place;
|
|
}
|
|
$template .= "A*";
|
|
return $template;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I find the soundex value of a string?
|
|
|
|
Use the standard Text::Soundex module distributed with perl.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I expand variables in text strings?
|
|
|
|
Let's assume that you have a string like:
|
|
|
|
$text = 'this has a $foo in it and a $bar';
|
|
|
|
If those were both global variables, then this would
|
|
suffice:
|
|
|
|
$text =~ s/\$(\w+)/${$1}/g; # no /e needed
|
|
|
|
But since they are probably lexicals, or at least, they could
|
|
be, you'd have to do this:
|
|
|
|
$text =~ s/(\$\w+)/$1/eeg;
|
|
die if $@; # needed /ee, not /e
|
|
|
|
It's probably better in the general case to treat those
|
|
variables as entries in some special hash. For example:
|
|
|
|
%user_defs = (
|
|
foo => 23,
|
|
bar => 19,
|
|
);
|
|
$text =~ s/\$(\w+)/$user_defs{$1}/g;
|
|
|
|
See also ``How do I expand function calls in a string?'' in this section
|
|
of the FAQ.
|
|
|
|
=head2 What's wrong with always quoting "$vars"?
|
|
|
|
The problem is that those double-quotes force stringification,
|
|
coercing numbers and references into strings, even when you
|
|
don't want them to be. Think of it this way: double-quote
|
|
expansion is used to produce new strings. If you already
|
|
have a string, why do you need more?
|
|
|
|
If you get used to writing odd things like these:
|
|
|
|
print "$var"; # BAD
|
|
$new = "$old"; # BAD
|
|
somefunc("$var"); # BAD
|
|
|
|
You'll be in trouble. Those should (in 99.8% of the cases) be
|
|
the simpler and more direct:
|
|
|
|
print $var;
|
|
$new = $old;
|
|
somefunc($var);
|
|
|
|
Otherwise, besides slowing you down, you're going to break code when
|
|
the thing in the scalar is actually neither a string nor a number, but
|
|
a reference:
|
|
|
|
func(\@array);
|
|
sub func {
|
|
my $aref = shift;
|
|
my $oref = "$aref"; # WRONG
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
You can also get into subtle problems on those few operations in Perl
|
|
that actually do care about the difference between a string and a
|
|
number, such as the magical C<++> autoincrement operator or the
|
|
syscall() function.
|
|
|
|
Stringification also destroys arrays.
|
|
|
|
@lines = `command`;
|
|
print "@lines"; # WRONG - extra blanks
|
|
print @lines; # right
|
|
|
|
=head2 Why don't my E<lt>E<lt>HERE documents work?
|
|
|
|
Check for these three things:
|
|
|
|
=over 4
|
|
|
|
=item 1. There must be no space after the << part.
|
|
|
|
=item 2. There (probably) should be a semicolon at the end.
|
|
|
|
=item 3. You can't (easily) have any space in front of the tag.
|
|
|
|
=back
|
|
|
|
If you want to indent the text in the here document, you
|
|
can do this:
|
|
|
|
# all in one
|
|
($VAR = <<HERE_TARGET) =~ s/^\s+//gm;
|
|
your text
|
|
goes here
|
|
HERE_TARGET
|
|
|
|
But the HERE_TARGET must still be flush against the margin.
|
|
If you want that indented also, you'll have to quote
|
|
in the indentation.
|
|
|
|
($quote = <<' FINIS') =~ s/^\s+//gm;
|
|
...we will have peace, when you and all your works have
|
|
perished--and the works of your dark master to whom you
|
|
would deliver us. You are a liar, Saruman, and a corrupter
|
|
of men's hearts. --Theoden in /usr/src/perl/taint.c
|
|
FINIS
|
|
$quote =~ s/\s*--/\n--/;
|
|
|
|
A nice general-purpose fixer-upper function for indented here documents
|
|
follows. It expects to be called with a here document as its argument.
|
|
It looks to see whether each line begins with a common substring, and
|
|
if so, strips that off. Otherwise, it takes the amount of leading
|
|
white space found on the first line and removes that much off each
|
|
subsequent line.
|
|
|
|
sub fix {
|
|
local $_ = shift;
|
|
my ($white, $leader); # common white space and common leading string
|
|
if (/^\s*(?:([^\w\s]+)(\s*).*\n)(?:\s*\1\2?.*\n)+$/) {
|
|
($white, $leader) = ($2, quotemeta($1));
|
|
} else {
|
|
($white, $leader) = (/^(\s+)/, '');
|
|
}
|
|
s/^\s*?$leader(?:$white)?//gm;
|
|
return $_;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
This works with leading special strings, dynamically determined:
|
|
|
|
$remember_the_main = fix<<' MAIN_INTERPRETER_LOOP';
|
|
@@@ int
|
|
@@@ runops() {
|
|
@@@ SAVEI32(runlevel);
|
|
@@@ runlevel++;
|
|
@@@ while ( op = (*op->op_ppaddr)() ) ;
|
|
@@@ TAINT_NOT;
|
|
@@@ return 0;
|
|
@@@ }
|
|
MAIN_INTERPRETER_LOOP
|
|
|
|
Or with a fixed amount of leading white space, with remaining
|
|
indentation correctly preserved:
|
|
|
|
$poem = fix<<EVER_ON_AND_ON;
|
|
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
|
|
And I must follow, if I can,
|
|
Pursuing it with eager feet,
|
|
Until it joins some larger way
|
|
Where many paths and errands meet.
|
|
And whither then? I cannot say.
|
|
--Bilbo in /usr/src/perl/pp_ctl.c
|
|
EVER_ON_AND_ON
|
|
|
|
=head1 Data: Arrays
|
|
|
|
=head2 What is the difference between a list and an array?
|
|
|
|
An array has a changeable length. A list does not. An array is something
|
|
you can push or pop, while a list is a set of values. Some people make
|
|
the distinction that a list is a value while an array is a variable.
|
|
Subroutines are passed and return lists, you put things into list
|
|
context, you initialize arrays with lists, and you foreach() across
|
|
a list. C<@> variables are arrays, anonymous arrays are arrays, arrays
|
|
in scalar context behave like the number of elements in them, subroutines
|
|
access their arguments through the array C<@_>, push/pop/shift only work
|
|
on arrays.
|
|
|
|
As a side note, there's no such thing as a list in scalar context.
|
|
When you say
|
|
|
|
$scalar = (2, 5, 7, 9);
|
|
|
|
you're using the comma operator in scalar context, so it evaluates the
|
|
left hand side, then evaluates and returns the left hand side. This
|
|
causes the last value to be returned: 9.
|
|
|
|
=head2 What is the difference between $array[1] and @array[1]?
|
|
|
|
The former is a scalar value, the latter an array slice, which makes
|
|
it a list with one (scalar) value. You should use $ when you want a
|
|
scalar value (most of the time) and @ when you want a list with one
|
|
scalar value in it (very, very rarely; nearly never, in fact).
|
|
|
|
Sometimes it doesn't make a difference, but sometimes it does.
|
|
For example, compare:
|
|
|
|
$good[0] = `some program that outputs several lines`;
|
|
|
|
with
|
|
|
|
@bad[0] = `same program that outputs several lines`;
|
|
|
|
The B<-w> flag will warn you about these matters.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I extract just the unique elements of an array?
|
|
|
|
There are several possible ways, depending on whether the array is
|
|
ordered and whether you wish to preserve the ordering.
|
|
|
|
=over 4
|
|
|
|
=item a) If @in is sorted, and you want @out to be sorted:
|
|
(this assumes all true values in the array)
|
|
|
|
$prev = 'nonesuch';
|
|
@out = grep($_ ne $prev && ($prev = $_), @in);
|
|
|
|
This is nice in that it doesn't use much extra memory, simulating
|
|
uniq(1)'s behavior of removing only adjacent duplicates. It's less
|
|
nice in that it won't work with false values like undef, 0, or "";
|
|
"0 but true" is ok, though.
|
|
|
|
=item b) If you don't know whether @in is sorted:
|
|
|
|
undef %saw;
|
|
@out = grep(!$saw{$_}++, @in);
|
|
|
|
=item c) Like (b), but @in contains only small integers:
|
|
|
|
@out = grep(!$saw[$_]++, @in);
|
|
|
|
=item d) A way to do (b) without any loops or greps:
|
|
|
|
undef %saw;
|
|
@saw{@in} = ();
|
|
@out = sort keys %saw; # remove sort if undesired
|
|
|
|
=item e) Like (d), but @in contains only small positive integers:
|
|
|
|
undef @ary;
|
|
@ary[@in] = @in;
|
|
@out = @ary;
|
|
|
|
=back
|
|
|
|
But perhaps you should have been using a hash all along, eh?
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I tell whether a list or array contains a certain element?
|
|
|
|
Hearing the word "in" is an I<in>dication that you probably should have
|
|
used a hash, not a list or array, to store your data. Hashes are
|
|
designed to answer this question quickly and efficiently. Arrays aren't.
|
|
|
|
That being said, there are several ways to approach this. If you
|
|
are going to make this query many times over arbitrary string values,
|
|
the fastest way is probably to invert the original array and keep an
|
|
associative array lying about whose keys are the first array's values.
|
|
|
|
@blues = qw/azure cerulean teal turquoise lapis-lazuli/;
|
|
undef %is_blue;
|
|
for (@blues) { $is_blue{$_} = 1 }
|
|
|
|
Now you can check whether $is_blue{$some_color}. It might have been a
|
|
good idea to keep the blues all in a hash in the first place.
|
|
|
|
If the values are all small integers, you could use a simple indexed
|
|
array. This kind of an array will take up less space:
|
|
|
|
@primes = (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31);
|
|
undef @is_tiny_prime;
|
|
for (@primes) { $is_tiny_prime[$_] = 1; }
|
|
|
|
Now you check whether $is_tiny_prime[$some_number].
|
|
|
|
If the values in question are integers instead of strings, you can save
|
|
quite a lot of space by using bit strings instead:
|
|
|
|
@articles = ( 1..10, 150..2000, 2017 );
|
|
undef $read;
|
|
for (@articles) { vec($read,$_,1) = 1 }
|
|
|
|
Now check whether C<vec($read,$n,1)> is true for some C<$n>.
|
|
|
|
Please do not use
|
|
|
|
$is_there = grep $_ eq $whatever, @array;
|
|
|
|
or worse yet
|
|
|
|
$is_there = grep /$whatever/, @array;
|
|
|
|
These are slow (checks every element even if the first matches),
|
|
inefficient (same reason), and potentially buggy (what if there are
|
|
regexp characters in $whatever?). If you're only testing once, then
|
|
use:
|
|
|
|
$is_there = 0;
|
|
foreach $elt (@array) {
|
|
if ($elt eq $elt_to_find) {
|
|
$is_there = 1;
|
|
last;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
if ($is_there) { ... }
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I compute the difference of two arrays? How do I compute the intersection of two arrays?
|
|
|
|
Use a hash. Here's code to do both and more. It assumes that
|
|
each element is unique in a given array:
|
|
|
|
@union = @intersection = @difference = ();
|
|
%count = ();
|
|
foreach $element (@array1, @array2) { $count{$element}++ }
|
|
foreach $element (keys %count) {
|
|
push @union, $element;
|
|
push @{ $count{$element} > 1 ? \@intersection : \@difference }, $element;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I test whether two arrays or hashes are equal?
|
|
|
|
The following code works for single-level arrays. It uses a stringwise
|
|
comparison, and does not distinguish defined versus undefined empty
|
|
strings. Modify if you have other needs.
|
|
|
|
$are_equal = compare_arrays(\@frogs, \@toads);
|
|
|
|
sub compare_arrays {
|
|
my ($first, $second) = @_;
|
|
local $^W = 0; # silence spurious -w undef complaints
|
|
return 0 unless @$first == @$second;
|
|
for (my $i = 0; $i < @$first; $i++) {
|
|
return 0 if $first->[$i] ne $second->[$i];
|
|
}
|
|
return 1;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
For multilevel structures, you may wish to use an approach more
|
|
like this one. It uses the CPAN module FreezeThaw:
|
|
|
|
use FreezeThaw qw(cmpStr);
|
|
@a = @b = ( "this", "that", [ "more", "stuff" ] );
|
|
|
|
printf "a and b contain %s arrays\n",
|
|
cmpStr(\@a, \@b) == 0
|
|
? "the same"
|
|
: "different";
|
|
|
|
This approach also works for comparing hashes. Here
|
|
we'll demonstrate two different answers:
|
|
|
|
use FreezeThaw qw(cmpStr cmpStrHard);
|
|
|
|
%a = %b = ( "this" => "that", "extra" => [ "more", "stuff" ] );
|
|
$a{EXTRA} = \%b;
|
|
$b{EXTRA} = \%a;
|
|
|
|
printf "a and b contain %s hashes\n",
|
|
cmpStr(\%a, \%b) == 0 ? "the same" : "different";
|
|
|
|
printf "a and b contain %s hashes\n",
|
|
cmpStrHard(\%a, \%b) == 0 ? "the same" : "different";
|
|
|
|
|
|
The first reports that both those the hashes contain the same data,
|
|
while the second reports that they do not. Which you prefer is left as
|
|
an exercise to the reader.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I find the first array element for which a condition is true?
|
|
|
|
You can use this if you care about the index:
|
|
|
|
for ($i= 0; $i < @array; $i++) {
|
|
if ($array[$i] eq "Waldo") {
|
|
$found_index = $i;
|
|
last;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
Now C<$found_index> has what you want.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I handle linked lists?
|
|
|
|
In general, you usually don't need a linked list in Perl, since with
|
|
regular arrays, you can push and pop or shift and unshift at either end,
|
|
or you can use splice to add and/or remove arbitrary number of elements at
|
|
arbitrary points. Both pop and shift are both O(1) operations on perl's
|
|
dynamic arrays. In the absence of shifts and pops, push in general
|
|
needs to reallocate on the order every log(N) times, and unshift will
|
|
need to copy pointers each time.
|
|
|
|
If you really, really wanted, you could use structures as described in
|
|
L<perldsc> or L<perltoot> and do just what the algorithm book tells you
|
|
to do. For example, imagine a list node like this:
|
|
|
|
$node = {
|
|
VALUE => 42,
|
|
LINK => undef,
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
You could walk the list this way:
|
|
|
|
print "List: ";
|
|
for ($node = $head; $node; $node = $node->{LINK}) {
|
|
print $node->{VALUE}, " ";
|
|
}
|
|
print "\n";
|
|
|
|
You could grow the list this way:
|
|
|
|
my ($head, $tail);
|
|
$tail = append($head, 1); # grow a new head
|
|
for $value ( 2 .. 10 ) {
|
|
$tail = append($tail, $value);
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
sub append {
|
|
my($list, $value) = @_;
|
|
my $node = { VALUE => $value };
|
|
if ($list) {
|
|
$node->{LINK} = $list->{LINK};
|
|
$list->{LINK} = $node;
|
|
} else {
|
|
$_[0] = $node; # replace caller's version
|
|
}
|
|
return $node;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
But again, Perl's built-in are virtually always good enough.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I handle circular lists?
|
|
|
|
Circular lists could be handled in the traditional fashion with linked
|
|
lists, or you could just do something like this with an array:
|
|
|
|
unshift(@array, pop(@array)); # the last shall be first
|
|
push(@array, shift(@array)); # and vice versa
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I shuffle an array randomly?
|
|
|
|
Use this:
|
|
|
|
# fisher_yates_shuffle( \@array ) :
|
|
# generate a random permutation of @array in place
|
|
sub fisher_yates_shuffle {
|
|
my $array = shift;
|
|
my $i;
|
|
for ($i = @$array; --$i; ) {
|
|
my $j = int rand ($i+1);
|
|
next if $i == $j;
|
|
@$array[$i,$j] = @$array[$j,$i];
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
fisher_yates_shuffle( \@array ); # permutes @array in place
|
|
|
|
You've probably seen shuffling algorithms that works using splice,
|
|
randomly picking another element to swap the current element with:
|
|
|
|
srand;
|
|
@new = ();
|
|
@old = 1 .. 10; # just a demo
|
|
while (@old) {
|
|
push(@new, splice(@old, rand @old, 1));
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
This is bad because splice is already O(N), and since you do it N times,
|
|
you just invented a quadratic algorithm; that is, O(N**2). This does
|
|
not scale, although Perl is so efficient that you probably won't notice
|
|
this until you have rather largish arrays.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I process/modify each element of an array?
|
|
|
|
Use C<for>/C<foreach>:
|
|
|
|
for (@lines) {
|
|
s/foo/bar/; # change that word
|
|
y/XZ/ZX/; # swap those letters
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
Here's another; let's compute spherical volumes:
|
|
|
|
for (@volumes = @radii) { # @volumes has changed parts
|
|
$_ **= 3;
|
|
$_ *= (4/3) * 3.14159; # this will be constant folded
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
If you want to do the same thing to modify the values of the hash,
|
|
you may not use the C<values> function, oddly enough. You need a slice:
|
|
|
|
for $orbit ( @orbits{keys %orbits} ) {
|
|
($orbit **= 3) *= (4/3) * 3.14159;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I select a random element from an array?
|
|
|
|
Use the rand() function (see L<perlfunc/rand>):
|
|
|
|
# at the top of the program:
|
|
srand; # not needed for 5.004 and later
|
|
|
|
# then later on
|
|
$index = rand @array;
|
|
$element = $array[$index];
|
|
|
|
Make sure you I<only call srand once per program, if then>.
|
|
If you are calling it more than once (such as before each
|
|
call to rand), you're almost certainly doing something wrong.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I permute N elements of a list?
|
|
|
|
Here's a little program that generates all permutations
|
|
of all the words on each line of input. The algorithm embodied
|
|
in the permute() function should work on any list:
|
|
|
|
#!/usr/bin/perl -n
|
|
# tsc-permute: permute each word of input
|
|
permute([split], []);
|
|
sub permute {
|
|
my @items = @{ $_[0] };
|
|
my @perms = @{ $_[1] };
|
|
unless (@items) {
|
|
print "@perms\n";
|
|
} else {
|
|
my(@newitems,@newperms,$i);
|
|
foreach $i (0 .. $#items) {
|
|
@newitems = @items;
|
|
@newperms = @perms;
|
|
unshift(@newperms, splice(@newitems, $i, 1));
|
|
permute([@newitems], [@newperms]);
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I sort an array by (anything)?
|
|
|
|
Supply a comparison function to sort() (described in L<perlfunc/sort>):
|
|
|
|
@list = sort { $a <=> $b } @list;
|
|
|
|
The default sort function is cmp, string comparison, which would
|
|
sort C<(1, 2, 10)> into C<(1, 10, 2)>. C<E<lt>=E<gt>>, used above, is
|
|
the numerical comparison operator.
|
|
|
|
If you have a complicated function needed to pull out the part you
|
|
want to sort on, then don't do it inside the sort function. Pull it
|
|
out first, because the sort BLOCK can be called many times for the
|
|
same element. Here's an example of how to pull out the first word
|
|
after the first number on each item, and then sort those words
|
|
case-insensitively.
|
|
|
|
@idx = ();
|
|
for (@data) {
|
|
($item) = /\d+\s*(\S+)/;
|
|
push @idx, uc($item);
|
|
}
|
|
@sorted = @data[ sort { $idx[$a] cmp $idx[$b] } 0 .. $#idx ];
|
|
|
|
Which could also be written this way, using a trick
|
|
that's come to be known as the Schwartzian Transform:
|
|
|
|
@sorted = map { $_->[0] }
|
|
sort { $a->[1] cmp $b->[1] }
|
|
map { [ $_, uc((/\d+\s*(\S+)/ )[0] ] } @data;
|
|
|
|
If you need to sort on several fields, the following paradigm is useful.
|
|
|
|
@sorted = sort { field1($a) <=> field1($b) ||
|
|
field2($a) cmp field2($b) ||
|
|
field3($a) cmp field3($b)
|
|
} @data;
|
|
|
|
This can be conveniently combined with precalculation of keys as given
|
|
above.
|
|
|
|
See http://www.perl.com/CPAN/doc/FMTEYEWTK/sort.html for more about
|
|
this approach.
|
|
|
|
See also the question below on sorting hashes.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I manipulate arrays of bits?
|
|
|
|
Use pack() and unpack(), or else vec() and the bitwise operations.
|
|
|
|
For example, this sets $vec to have bit N set if $ints[N] was set:
|
|
|
|
$vec = '';
|
|
foreach(@ints) { vec($vec,$_,1) = 1 }
|
|
|
|
And here's how, given a vector in $vec, you can
|
|
get those bits into your @ints array:
|
|
|
|
sub bitvec_to_list {
|
|
my $vec = shift;
|
|
my @ints;
|
|
# Find null-byte density then select best algorithm
|
|
if ($vec =~ tr/\0// / length $vec > 0.95) {
|
|
use integer;
|
|
my $i;
|
|
# This method is faster with mostly null-bytes
|
|
while($vec =~ /[^\0]/g ) {
|
|
$i = -9 + 8 * pos $vec;
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
push @ints, $i if vec($vec, ++$i, 1);
|
|
}
|
|
} else {
|
|
# This method is a fast general algorithm
|
|
use integer;
|
|
my $bits = unpack "b*", $vec;
|
|
push @ints, 0 if $bits =~ s/^(\d)// && $1;
|
|
push @ints, pos $bits while($bits =~ /1/g);
|
|
}
|
|
return \@ints;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
This method gets faster the more sparse the bit vector is.
|
|
(Courtesy of Tim Bunce and Winfried Koenig.)
|
|
|
|
Here's a demo on how to use vec():
|
|
|
|
# vec demo
|
|
$vector = "\xff\x0f\xef\xfe";
|
|
print "Ilya's string \\xff\\x0f\\xef\\xfe represents the number ",
|
|
unpack("N", $vector), "\n";
|
|
$is_set = vec($vector, 23, 1);
|
|
print "Its 23rd bit is ", $is_set ? "set" : "clear", ".\n";
|
|
pvec($vector);
|
|
|
|
set_vec(1,1,1);
|
|
set_vec(3,1,1);
|
|
set_vec(23,1,1);
|
|
|
|
set_vec(3,1,3);
|
|
set_vec(3,2,3);
|
|
set_vec(3,4,3);
|
|
set_vec(3,4,7);
|
|
set_vec(3,8,3);
|
|
set_vec(3,8,7);
|
|
|
|
set_vec(0,32,17);
|
|
set_vec(1,32,17);
|
|
|
|
sub set_vec {
|
|
my ($offset, $width, $value) = @_;
|
|
my $vector = '';
|
|
vec($vector, $offset, $width) = $value;
|
|
print "offset=$offset width=$width value=$value\n";
|
|
pvec($vector);
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
sub pvec {
|
|
my $vector = shift;
|
|
my $bits = unpack("b*", $vector);
|
|
my $i = 0;
|
|
my $BASE = 8;
|
|
|
|
print "vector length in bytes: ", length($vector), "\n";
|
|
@bytes = unpack("A8" x length($vector), $bits);
|
|
print "bits are: @bytes\n\n";
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
=head2 Why does defined() return true on empty arrays and hashes?
|
|
|
|
The short story is that you should probably only use defined on scalars or
|
|
functions, not on aggregates (arrays and hashes). See L<perlfunc/defined>
|
|
in the 5.004 release or later of Perl for more detail.
|
|
|
|
=head1 Data: Hashes (Associative Arrays)
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I process an entire hash?
|
|
|
|
Use the each() function (see L<perlfunc/each>) if you don't care
|
|
whether it's sorted:
|
|
|
|
while ( ($key, $value) = each %hash) {
|
|
print "$key = $value\n";
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
If you want it sorted, you'll have to use foreach() on the result of
|
|
sorting the keys as shown in an earlier question.
|
|
|
|
=head2 What happens if I add or remove keys from a hash while iterating over it?
|
|
|
|
Don't do that.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I look up a hash element by value?
|
|
|
|
Create a reverse hash:
|
|
|
|
%by_value = reverse %by_key;
|
|
$key = $by_value{$value};
|
|
|
|
That's not particularly efficient. It would be more space-efficient
|
|
to use:
|
|
|
|
while (($key, $value) = each %by_key) {
|
|
$by_value{$value} = $key;
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
If your hash could have repeated values, the methods above will only
|
|
find one of the associated keys. This may or may not worry you.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I know how many entries are in a hash?
|
|
|
|
If you mean how many keys, then all you have to do is
|
|
take the scalar sense of the keys() function:
|
|
|
|
$num_keys = scalar keys %hash;
|
|
|
|
In void context it just resets the iterator, which is faster
|
|
for tied hashes.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)?
|
|
|
|
Internally, hashes are stored in a way that prevents you from imposing
|
|
an order on key-value pairs. Instead, you have to sort a list of the
|
|
keys or values:
|
|
|
|
@keys = sort keys %hash; # sorted by key
|
|
@keys = sort {
|
|
$hash{$a} cmp $hash{$b}
|
|
} keys %hash; # and by value
|
|
|
|
Here we'll do a reverse numeric sort by value, and if two keys are
|
|
identical, sort by length of key, and if that fails, by straight ASCII
|
|
comparison of the keys (well, possibly modified by your locale -- see
|
|
L<perllocale>).
|
|
|
|
@keys = sort {
|
|
$hash{$b} <=> $hash{$a}
|
|
||
|
|
length($b) <=> length($a)
|
|
||
|
|
$a cmp $b
|
|
} keys %hash;
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I always keep my hash sorted?
|
|
|
|
You can look into using the DB_File module and tie() using the
|
|
$DB_BTREE hash bindings as documented in L<DB_File/"In Memory Databases">.
|
|
The Tie::IxHash module from CPAN might also be instructive.
|
|
|
|
=head2 What's the difference between "delete" and "undef" with hashes?
|
|
|
|
Hashes are pairs of scalars: the first is the key, the second is the
|
|
value. The key will be coerced to a string, although the value can be
|
|
any kind of scalar: string, number, or reference. If a key C<$key> is
|
|
present in the array, C<exists($key)> will return true. The value for
|
|
a given key can be C<undef>, in which case C<$array{$key}> will be
|
|
C<undef> while C<$exists{$key}> will return true. This corresponds to
|
|
(C<$key>, C<undef>) being in the hash.
|
|
|
|
Pictures help... here's the C<%ary> table:
|
|
|
|
keys values
|
|
+------+------+
|
|
| a | 3 |
|
|
| x | 7 |
|
|
| d | 0 |
|
|
| e | 2 |
|
|
+------+------+
|
|
|
|
And these conditions hold
|
|
|
|
$ary{'a'} is true
|
|
$ary{'d'} is false
|
|
defined $ary{'d'} is true
|
|
defined $ary{'a'} is true
|
|
exists $ary{'a'} is true (perl5 only)
|
|
grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is true
|
|
|
|
If you now say
|
|
|
|
undef $ary{'a'}
|
|
|
|
your table now reads:
|
|
|
|
|
|
keys values
|
|
+------+------+
|
|
| a | undef|
|
|
| x | 7 |
|
|
| d | 0 |
|
|
| e | 2 |
|
|
+------+------+
|
|
|
|
and these conditions now hold; changes in caps:
|
|
|
|
$ary{'a'} is FALSE
|
|
$ary{'d'} is false
|
|
defined $ary{'d'} is true
|
|
defined $ary{'a'} is FALSE
|
|
exists $ary{'a'} is true (perl5 only)
|
|
grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is true
|
|
|
|
Notice the last two: you have an undef value, but a defined key!
|
|
|
|
Now, consider this:
|
|
|
|
delete $ary{'a'}
|
|
|
|
your table now reads:
|
|
|
|
keys values
|
|
+------+------+
|
|
| x | 7 |
|
|
| d | 0 |
|
|
| e | 2 |
|
|
+------+------+
|
|
|
|
and these conditions now hold; changes in caps:
|
|
|
|
$ary{'a'} is false
|
|
$ary{'d'} is false
|
|
defined $ary{'d'} is true
|
|
defined $ary{'a'} is false
|
|
exists $ary{'a'} is FALSE (perl5 only)
|
|
grep ($_ eq 'a', keys %ary) is FALSE
|
|
|
|
See, the whole entry is gone!
|
|
|
|
=head2 Why don't my tied hashes make the defined/exists distinction?
|
|
|
|
They may or may not implement the EXISTS() and DEFINED() methods
|
|
differently. For example, there isn't the concept of undef with hashes
|
|
that are tied to DBM* files. This means the true/false tables above
|
|
will give different results when used on such a hash. It also means
|
|
that exists and defined do the same thing with a DBM* file, and what
|
|
they end up doing is not what they do with ordinary hashes.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I reset an each() operation part-way through?
|
|
|
|
Using C<keys %hash> in scalar context returns the number of keys in
|
|
the hash I<and> resets the iterator associated with the hash. You may
|
|
need to do this if you use C<last> to exit a loop early so that when you
|
|
re-enter it, the hash iterator has been reset.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I get the unique keys from two hashes?
|
|
|
|
First you extract the keys from the hashes into arrays, and then solve
|
|
the uniquifying the array problem described above. For example:
|
|
|
|
%seen = ();
|
|
for $element (keys(%foo), keys(%bar)) {
|
|
$seen{$element}++;
|
|
}
|
|
@uniq = keys %seen;
|
|
|
|
Or more succinctly:
|
|
|
|
@uniq = keys %{{%foo,%bar}};
|
|
|
|
Or if you really want to save space:
|
|
|
|
%seen = ();
|
|
while (defined ($key = each %foo)) {
|
|
$seen{$key}++;
|
|
}
|
|
while (defined ($key = each %bar)) {
|
|
$seen{$key}++;
|
|
}
|
|
@uniq = keys %seen;
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I store a multidimensional array in a DBM file?
|
|
|
|
Either stringify the structure yourself (no fun), or else
|
|
get the MLDBM (which uses Data::Dumper) module from CPAN and layer
|
|
it on top of either DB_File or GDBM_File.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I make my hash remember the order I put elements into it?
|
|
|
|
Use the Tie::IxHash from CPAN.
|
|
|
|
use Tie::IxHash;
|
|
tie(%myhash, Tie::IxHash);
|
|
for ($i=0; $i<20; $i++) {
|
|
$myhash{$i} = 2*$i;
|
|
}
|
|
@keys = keys %myhash;
|
|
# @keys = (0,1,2,3,...)
|
|
|
|
=head2 Why does passing a subroutine an undefined element in a hash create it?
|
|
|
|
If you say something like:
|
|
|
|
somefunc($hash{"nonesuch key here"});
|
|
|
|
Then that element "autovivifies"; that is, it springs into existence
|
|
whether you store something there or not. That's because functions
|
|
get scalars passed in by reference. If somefunc() modifies C<$_[0]>,
|
|
it has to be ready to write it back into the caller's version.
|
|
|
|
This has been fixed as of perl5.004.
|
|
|
|
Normally, merely accessing a key's value for a nonexistent key does
|
|
I<not> cause that key to be forever there. This is different than
|
|
awk's behavior.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I make the Perl equivalent of a C structure/C++ class/hash or array of hashes or arrays?
|
|
|
|
Usually a hash ref, perhaps like this:
|
|
|
|
$record = {
|
|
NAME => "Jason",
|
|
EMPNO => 132,
|
|
TITLE => "deputy peon",
|
|
AGE => 23,
|
|
SALARY => 37_000,
|
|
PALS => [ "Norbert", "Rhys", "Phineas"],
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
References are documented in L<perlref> and the upcoming L<perlreftut>.
|
|
Examples of complex data structures are given in L<perldsc> and
|
|
L<perllol>. Examples of structures and object-oriented classes are
|
|
in L<perltoot>.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How can I use a reference as a hash key?
|
|
|
|
You can't do this directly, but you could use the standard Tie::Refhash
|
|
module distributed with perl.
|
|
|
|
=head1 Data: Misc
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I handle binary data correctly?
|
|
|
|
Perl is binary clean, so this shouldn't be a problem. For example,
|
|
this works fine (assuming the files are found):
|
|
|
|
if (`cat /vmunix` =~ /gzip/) {
|
|
print "Your kernel is GNU-zip enabled!\n";
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
On some legacy systems, however, you have to play tedious games with
|
|
"text" versus "binary" files. See L<perlfunc/"binmode">, or the upcoming
|
|
L<perlopentut> manpage.
|
|
|
|
If you're concerned about 8-bit ASCII data, then see L<perllocale>.
|
|
|
|
If you want to deal with multibyte characters, however, there are
|
|
some gotchas. See the section on Regular Expressions.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I determine whether a scalar is a number/whole/integer/float?
|
|
|
|
Assuming that you don't care about IEEE notations like "NaN" or
|
|
"Infinity", you probably just want to use a regular expression.
|
|
|
|
if (/\D/) { print "has nondigits\n" }
|
|
if (/^\d+$/) { print "is a whole number\n" }
|
|
if (/^-?\d+$/) { print "is an integer\n" }
|
|
if (/^[+-]?\d+$/) { print "is a +/- integer\n" }
|
|
if (/^-?\d+\.?\d*$/) { print "is a real number\n" }
|
|
if (/^-?(?:\d+(?:\.\d*)?|\.\d+)$/) { print "is a decimal number" }
|
|
if (/^([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?$/)
|
|
{ print "a C float" }
|
|
|
|
If you're on a POSIX system, Perl's supports the C<POSIX::strtod>
|
|
function. Its semantics are somewhat cumbersome, so here's a C<getnum>
|
|
wrapper function for more convenient access. This function takes
|
|
a string and returns the number it found, or C<undef> for input that
|
|
isn't a C float. The C<is_numeric> function is a front end to C<getnum>
|
|
if you just want to say, ``Is this a float?''
|
|
|
|
sub getnum {
|
|
use POSIX qw(strtod);
|
|
my $str = shift;
|
|
$str =~ s/^\s+//;
|
|
$str =~ s/\s+$//;
|
|
$! = 0;
|
|
my($num, $unparsed) = strtod($str);
|
|
if (($str eq '') || ($unparsed != 0) || $!) {
|
|
return undef;
|
|
} else {
|
|
return $num;
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
sub is_numeric { defined &getnum }
|
|
|
|
Or you could check out String::Scanf which can be found at
|
|
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/String/.
|
|
The POSIX module (part of the standard Perl distribution) provides
|
|
the C<strtol> and C<strtod> for converting strings to double
|
|
and longs, respectively.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I keep persistent data across program calls?
|
|
|
|
For some specific applications, you can use one of the DBM modules.
|
|
See L<AnyDBM_File>. More generically, you should consult the FreezeThaw,
|
|
Storable, or Class::Eroot modules from CPAN. Here's one example using
|
|
Storable's C<store> and C<retrieve> functions:
|
|
|
|
use Storable;
|
|
store(\%hash, "filename");
|
|
|
|
# later on...
|
|
$href = retrieve("filename"); # by ref
|
|
%hash = %{ retrieve("filename") }; # direct to hash
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I print out or copy a recursive data structure?
|
|
|
|
The Data::Dumper module on CPAN (or the 5.005 release of Perl) is great
|
|
for printing out data structures. The Storable module, found on CPAN,
|
|
provides a function called C<dclone> that recursively copies its argument.
|
|
|
|
use Storable qw(dclone);
|
|
$r2 = dclone($r1);
|
|
|
|
Where $r1 can be a reference to any kind of data structure you'd like.
|
|
It will be deeply copied. Because C<dclone> takes and returns references,
|
|
you'd have to add extra punctuation if you had a hash of arrays that
|
|
you wanted to copy.
|
|
|
|
%newhash = %{ dclone(\%oldhash) };
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I define methods for every class/object?
|
|
|
|
Use the UNIVERSAL class (see L<UNIVERSAL>).
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I verify a credit card checksum?
|
|
|
|
Get the Business::CreditCard module from CPAN.
|
|
|
|
=head2 How do I pack arrays of doubles or floats for XS code?
|
|
|
|
The kgbpack.c code in the PGPLOT module on CPAN does just this.
|
|
If you're doing a lot of float or double processing, consider using
|
|
the PDL module from CPAN instead--it makes number-crunching easy.
|
|
|
|
=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
|
|
|
|
Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
|
|
All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
When included as part of the Standard Version of Perl, or as part of
|
|
its complete documentation whether printed or otherwise, this work
|
|
may be distributed only under the terms of Perl's Artistic Licence.
|
|
Any distribution of this file or derivatives thereof I<outside>
|
|
of that package require that special arrangements be made with
|
|
copyright holder.
|
|
|
|
Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in this file
|
|
are hereby placed into the public domain. You are permitted and
|
|
encouraged to use this code in your own programs for fun
|
|
or for profit as you see fit. A simple comment in the code giving
|
|
credit would be courteous but is not required.
|
|
|