[islayer]

i am trying to write a dictionary using perl, the program would use a primary .pl file, and a text file, designated .dat

i have no programing background, and am trying to teach myself perl, and c++, so excuse my ignorance.

i have experimented with some scripts, i have figured out why my last one didn't work, but i have no idea what to do. this was my last attempt:

dictionary.pl

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1. #!/usr/bin/perl
2.  
3. $data_file="bionicle.dat";
4.  
5. $input=<STDIN>;
6.  
7. open(DAT, $data_file) || die("Could not open file!");
8. @raw_data=<DAT>;
9. close(DAT);
10.  
11. foreach $word (@raw_data)
12. {
13.  chop($word);
14.  ($name,$def)=split(/\|/,$word);
15.  if ($name=$input) {
16.   print "$name: $def";
17.   sleep(10);
18.   } else {
19.   print "sorry, word not found";
20.   sleep(3);
21.   }
22. }
23.  

and dictionary.dat

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1. word1|definition1
2. word2|definition2
3. word3|definition3
4.  

so i that my script was nothing like what i wanted, but what did i want?

thanks in advance,

ian

[KevinADC]

beginner mistake:

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1. if ($name=$input) {

'=' is the assignment operator so the above is always true because you are assigning the value of $input to $name. Probably you want to use 'eq':

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1. if ($name eq $input) {

look up perls string operators when you get a chance.

[islayer]

Originally Posted by KevinADC

beginner mistake:

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1. if ($name=$input) {

'=' is the assignment operator so the above is always true because you are assigning the value of $input to $name. Probably you want to use 'eq':

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1. if ($name eq $input) {

look up perls string operators when you get a chance.

oops actually i think i meant to use "==", i knew that. isn't "eq" used for numeric equallity?

[islayer]

by the way, my intended result was for the script to print the word originally typed, and the definition supplied by the dictionary.dat file. actually there were quite a few problems with that script.

basically my question is how can i make perl read from another file, such as the one i supplied, search for a word found before the pipe divider, and print the text following the pipe.

[eWish]

perlop Equality Operators.

--Kevin

[islayer]

ok thanks, i guess i shouldn't question people more experienced than me lol. i got that completely backward.

however upon using the "eq" operator, my script just ran indefinitely, without ever printing an indication of true or false. i believe if it was working correctly, although this is not what i wanted, wouldn't it print "word not found", for each line in the dictionary.dat file? but when i run it, it never prints anything.

[KevinADC]

Originally Posted by islayer

ok thanks, i guess i shouldn't question people more experienced than me lol. i got that completely backward.

however upon using the "eq" operator, my script just ran indefinitely, without ever printing an indication of true or false. i believe if it was working correctly, although this is not what i wanted, wouldn't it print "word not found", for each line in the dictionary.dat file? but when i run it, it never prints anything.

post a few (2 or 3) sample lines from the dictionary file and show what input you give your script.

[islayer]

Originally Posted by KevinADC

post a few (2 or 3) sample lines from the dictionary file and show what input you give your script.

the dictionary is a dictionary of maori words.

dictionary.dat:

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1.  
2. kopaka|ice
3. pohatu|stone
4. tahu|burn
5.  

this is just an example there are a lot of words before, after, and in between.

input into dictionary.pl:

"tahu" without quotes

it then runs infinitely without printing, and obviously not ending.

(edit) actually after some time it does end. so i guess it is going through my entire dictionary.dat file.

[eWish]

After you get your input into the $input variable use chomp.

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1. my $file_name = 'f:/test_file.txt';
2.  
3. print 'Please enter a word?';
4.  
5. my $input = <STDIN>;
6. chomp($input);
7.  
8. open (my $FILE, '<', $file_name) || die "Can't open file $file_name: $!\n";
9. while (<$FILE>) {
10.     chomp;
11.     my ($name, $def) = split(/\|/);
12.  
13.     if ($name eq $input) {
14.         print "$name means $def\n";
15.         exit;
16.  
17.     ..rest of code here...
18.  
19. }
20. close($FILE);

--Kevin

[islayer]

Originally Posted by eWish

After you get your input into the $input variable use chomp.

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1. my $file_name = 'f:/test_file.txt';
2.  
3. print 'Please enter a word?';
4.  
5. my $input = <STDIN>;
6. chomp($input);
7.  
8. open (my $FILE, '<', $file_name) || die "Can't open file $file_name: $!\n";
9. while (<$FILE>) {
10.     chomp;
11.     my ($name, $def) = split(/\|/);
12.  
13.     if ($name eq $input) {
14.         print "$name means $def\n";
15.         exit;
16.  
17.     ..rest of code here...
18.  
19. }
20. close($FILE);

--Kevin

ok, thank you very much! most of the code make sense to me, but like i said, im a n00b. the parts i don't understand are '<' and < and > around $FILE

thanks a lot,

ian

[eWish]

It is the same as witting the following.

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1. open FILEHANDLE,MODE,EXPR

In theory it is a more secure way to open a file. That is according to 'Perl Best Practices'.

--Kevin