How to use text output from one perl script as input to another perl script? I seem to be able run this as two separate scripts but not as one - perl

Question

I've got a script that reformats an input file and creates an output file. When I try to read that output file for the second part of the script, it doesn't work. However if I split the script into two parts it works fine and gives me the output that I need. I'm not a programmer and surprised I've got this far - I've been banging my head for days trying to resolve this.
My command for running it is this (BTW the temp.txt was just a brute force workaround for getting rid of the final comma to get my final output file - couldn't find another solution):
c:\perl\bin\perl merge.pl F146.sel temp.txt F146H.txt
Input looks like this (from another software package) ("F146.sel"):
/ Selected holes from the .\Mag_F146_Trimmed.gdb database.
"L12260"
"L12270"
"L12280"
"L12290"
Output looks like this (mods to the text: quotes removed, insert comma, concatenate into one line, remove the last comma) "F146H.txt":
L12260,L12270,L12280,L12290
Then I want to use this as input in the next part of the script, which basically inserts this output into a line of code that I can use in another software package (my "merge.gs" file). This is the output that I get if I split my script into two parts, but it just gives me a blank if I do it as one (see below).
CURRENT Database,"RAD_F146.gdb"
SETINI MERGLINE.OUT="DALL"
SETINI MERGLINE.LINES="L12260,L12270,L12280,L12290"
GX mergline.gx
What follows is my "merge.pl". What have I done wrong?
(actually, the question could be - what haven't I done wrong, as this is probably the most retarded code you've seen in a while. In fact, I bet some of you could get this entire operation done in 10-15 lines of code, instead of my butchered 90. Thanks in advance.)
# this reformats the SEL file to remove the first line and replace the " with nothing
$file = shift ;
$temp = shift ;
$linesH = shift ;
#open (Profiles, ">.\\scripts\\P2.gs")||die "couldn't open output .gs file";
open my $in, '<', $file or die "Can't read old file: Inappropriate I/O control operation";
open my $out, '>', $temp or die "Can't write new file: Inappropriate I/O control operation";
my $firstLine = 1;
while( <$in> )
{
if($firstLine)
{
$firstLine = 0;
}
else{
s/"L/L/g; # replace "L with L
s/"/,/g; # replace " with,
s|\s+||; # concatenates it all into one line
print $out $_;
}
}
close $out;
open (part1, "${temp}")||die "Couldn't open selection file";
open (part2, ">${linesH}")||die "Couldn't open selection file";
printitChomp();
sub printitChomp
{
print part2 <<ENDGS;
ENDGS
}
while ($temp = <part1> )
{
print $temp;
printit();
}
sub printit
{$string = substr (${temp}, 0,-1);
print part2 <<ENDGS;
$string
ENDGS
}
####Theoretically this creates the merge script from the output
####file from the previous loop. However it only seems to work
####if I split this into 2 perl scripts.
open (MergeScript, ">MergeScript.gs")||die "couldn't open output .gs file";
printitMerge();
open (SEL, "${linesH}")||die "Couldn't open selection file";
sub printitMerge
#open .sel file
{
print MergeScript <<ENDGS;
ENDGS
}
#iterate over required files
while ( $line = <SEL> ){
chomp $line;
print STDOUT $line;
printitLines();
}
sub printitLines
{
print MergeScript <<ENDGS;
CURRENT Database,"RAD_F146.gdb"
SETINI MERGLINE.OUT="DALL"
SETINI MERGLINE.LINES="${line}"
GX mergline.gx
ENDGS
}

Answer 1

so I think all you were really missing was close(part2); to allow it to be reopened as SEL..
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
# this reformats the SEL file to remove the first line and replace the " with nothing
my $file = shift;
my $temp = shift;
my $linesH = shift;
open my $in, '<', $file or die "Can't read old file: Inappropriate I/O control operation";
open my $out, '>', $temp or die "Can't write new file: Inappropriate I/O control operation";
my $firstLine = 1;
while (my $line = <$in>){
print "LINE: $line\n";
if ($firstLine){
$firstLine = 0;
} else {
$line =~ s/"L/L/g; # replace "L with L
$line =~ s/"/,/g; # replace " with,
$line =~ s/\s+//g; # concatenates it all into one line
print $out $line;
}
}
close $out;
open (part1, $temp) || die "Couldn't open selection file";
open (part2, ">", $linesH) || die "Couldn't open selection file";
while (my $temp_line = <part1>){
print "TEMPLINE: $temp_line\n";
my $string = substr($temp_line, 0, -1);
print part2 <<ENDGS;
$string
ENDGS
}
close(part2);
#### this creates the merge script from the output
#### file from the previous loop.
open (MergeScript, ">MergeScript.gs")||die "couldn't open output .gs file";
open (SEL, $linesH) || die "Couldn't open selection file";
#iterate over required files
while ( my $sel_line = <SEL> ){
chomp $sel_line;
print STDOUT $sel_line;
print MergeScript <<"ENDGS";
CURRENT Database,"RAD_F146.gdb"
SETINI MERGLINE.OUT="DALL"
SETINI MERGLINE.LINES="$sel_line"
GX mergline.gx
ENDGS
}
and one alternative way of doing it..
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my $file = shift;
open my $in, '<', $file or die "Can't read old file: Inappropriate I/O control operation";
my #lines = <$in>; # read in all the lines
shift #lines; # discard the first line
my $line = join(',', #lines); # join the lines with commas
$line =~ s/[\r\n"]+//g; # remove the quotes and newlines
# print the line into the mergescript
open (MergeScript, ">MergeScript.gs")||die "couldn't open output .gs file";
print MergeScript <<"ENDGS";
CURRENT Database,"RAD_F146.gdb"
SETINI MERGLINE.OUT="DALL"
SETINI MERGLINE.LINES="$line"
GX mergline.gx
ENDGS