I have a Perl program that reads in a bunch of data, munges it, and then outputs several different file formats. I'd like to make Perl be one of those formats (in the form of a .pm package) and allow people to use the munged data within their own Perl scripts.
Printing out the data is easy using Data::Dump::pp.
I'd also like to print some helper functions to the resulting package.
What's an easy way to print a multi-line string without variable substitution?
I'd like to be able to do:
print <<EOL;
sub xyz {
my $var = shift;
}
EOL
But then I'd have to escape all of the $'s.
Is there a simple way to do this? Perhaps I can create an actual sub and have some magic pretty-printer print the contents? The printed code doesn't have to match the input or even be legible.
Enclose the name of the delimiter in single quotes and interpolation will not occur.
print <<'EOL';
sub xyz {
my $var = shift;
}
EOL
You could use a templating package like Template::Toolkit or Text::Template.
Or, you could roll your own primitive templating system that looks something like this:
my %vars = qw( foo 1 bar 2 );
Write_Code(\$vars);
sub Write_Code {
my $vars = shift;
my $code = <<'END';
sub baz {
my $foo = <%foo%>;
my $bar = <%bar%>;
return $foo + $bar;
}
END
while ( my ($key, $value) = each %$vars ) {
$code =~ s/<%$key%>/$value/g;
}
return $code;
}
This looks nice and simple, but there are various traps and tricks waiting for you if you DIY. Did you notice that I failed to use quotemeta on my key names in the substituion?
I recommend that you use a time-tested templating library, like the ones I mentioned above.
You can actually continue a string literal on the next line, like this:
my $mail = "Hello!
Blah blah.";
Personally, I find that more readable than heredocs (the <<<EOL thing mentioned elsewhere).
Double quote " interpolates variables, but you can use '. Note you'll need to escape any ' in your string for this to work.
Perl is actually quite rich in convenient things to make things more readable, e.g. other quote-operations. qq and q correspond to " and ' and you can use whatever delimiter makes sense:
my $greeting = qq/Hello there $name!
Nice to meet you/; # Interpolation
my $url = q|http://perlmonks.org/|; # No need to escape /
(note how the syntax coloring here didn't quite keep up)
Read perldoc perlop (find in page: "Quote and Quote-like Operators") for more information.
Use a data section to store the Perl code:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
print <DATA>;
#print munged data
__DATA__
package MungedData;
use strict;
use warnings;
sub foo {
print "foo\n";
}
Try writing your code as an actual perl subroutine, then using B::Deparse to get the source code at runtime.
Related
I need to control the print method using a variable
My code is below
#!/usr/bin/perl
# test_assign_func.pl
use strict;
use warnings;
sub echo {
my ($string) = #_;
print "from echo: $string\n\n";
}
my $myprint = \&echo;
$myprint->("hello");
$myprint = \&print;
$myprint->("world");
when I ran, I got the following error for the assignment of print function
$ test_assign_func.pl
from echo: hello
Undefined subroutine &main::print called at test_assign_func.pl line 17.
Looks like I need to prefix a namespace to print function but I cannot find the name space. Thank you for any advice!
print is an operator, not a sub.
perlfunc:
The functions in this section can serve as terms in an expression. They fall into two major categories: list operators and named unary operators.
Perl provides a sub for named operators that can be duplicated by a sub with a prototype. A reference to these can be obtained using \&CORE::name.
my $f = \&CORE::length;
say $f->("abc"); # 3
But print isn't such an operator (because of the way it accepts a file handle). For these, you'll need to create a sub with a more limited calling convention.
my $f = sub { print #_ };
$f->("abc\n");
Related:
What are Perl built-in operators/functions?
As mentioned in CORE, some functions can't be called as subroutines, only as barewords. print is one of them.
I'm just starting in Perl and I'm quite enjoying it. I'm writing some basic functions, but what I really want to be able to do is to use those functions intelligently using console commands. For example, say I have a function adding two numbers. I'd want to be able to type in console "add 2, 4" and read the first word, then pass the two numbers as parameters in an "add" function. Essentially, I'm asking for help in creating some basic scripting using Perl ^^'.
I have some vague ideas about how I might do this in VB, but Perl, I have no idea where I'd start, or what functions would be useful to me. Is there something like VB.net's "Split" function where you can break down the contents of a scalar into an array? Is there a simple way to analyse one word at a time in a scalar, or iterate through a scalar until you hit a separator, for example?
I hope you can help, any suggestions are appreciated! Bear in mind, I'm no expert, I started Perl all of a few weeks ago, and I've only been doing VB.net half a year.
Thank you!
Edit: If you're not sure what to suggest and you know any simple/intuitive resources that might be of help, that would also be appreciated.
Its rather easy to make a script which dispatches to a command by name. Here is a simple example:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
# take the command name off the #ARGV stack
my $command_name = shift;
# get a reference to the subroutine by name
my $command = __PACKAGE__->can($command_name) || die "Unknown command: $command_name\n";
# execute the command, using the rest of #ARGV as arguments
# and print the return with a trailing newline
print $command->(#ARGV);
print "\n";
sub add {
my ($x, $y) = #_;
return $x + $y;
}
sub subtract {
my ($x, $y) = #_;
return $x - $y;
}
This script (say its named myscript.pl) can be called like
$ ./myscript.pl add 2 3
or
$ ./myscript.pl subtract 2 3
Once you have played with that for a while, you might want to take it further and use a framework for this kind of thing. There are several available, like App::Cmd or you can take the logic shown above and modularize as you see fit.
You want to parse command line arguments. A space serves as the delimiter, so just do a ./add.pl 2 3 Something like this:
$num1=$ARGV[0];
$num2=$ARGV[1];
print $num1 + $num2;
will print 5
Here is a short implementation of a simple scripting language.
Each statement is exactly one line long, and has the following structure:
Statement = [<Var> =] <Command> [<Arg> ...]
# This is a regular grammar, so we don't need a complicated parser.
Tokens are seperated by whitespace. A command may take any number of arguments. These can either be the contents of variables $var, a string "foo", or a number (int or float).
As these are Perl scalars, there is no visible difference between strings and numbers.
Here is the preamble of the script:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use 5.010;
strict and warnings are essential when learning Perl, else too much weird stuff would be possible. The use 5.010 is a minimum version, it also defines the say builtin (like a print but appends a newline).
Now we declare two global variables: The %env hash (table or dict) associates variable names with their values. %functions holds our builtin functions. The values are anonymous functions.
my %env;
my %functions = (
add => sub { $_[0] + $_[1] },
mul => sub { $_[0] * $_[1] },
say => sub { say $_[0] },
bye => sub { exit 0 },
);
Now comes our read-eval-loop (we don't print by default). The readline operator <> will read from the file specified as the first command line argument, or from STDIN if no filename is provided.
while (<>) {
next if /^\s*\#/; # jump comment lines
# parse the line. We get a destination $var, a $command, and any number of #args
my ($var, $command, #args) = parse($_);
# Execute the anonymous sub specified by $command with the #args
my $value = $functions{ $command }->(#args);
# Store the return value if a destination $var was specified
$env{ $var } = $value if defined $var;
}
That was fairly trivial. Now comes some parsing code. Perl “binds” regexes to strings with the =~ operator. Regexes may look like /foo/ or m/foo/. The /x flags allows us to include whitespace in our regex that doesn't match actual whitespace. The /g flag matches globally. This also enables the \G assertion. This is where the last successful match ended. The /c flag is important for this m//gc style parsing to consume one match at a time, and to prevent the position of the regex engine in out string to being reset.
sub parse {
my ($line) = #_; # get the $line, which is a argument
my ($var, $command, #args); # declare variables to be filled
# Test if this statement has a variable declaration
if ($line =~ m/\G\s* \$(\w+) \s*=\s* /xgc) {
$var = $1; # assign first capture if successful
}
# Parse the function of this statement.
if ($line =~ m/\G\s* (\w+) \s*/xgc) {
$command = $1;
# Test if the specified function exists in our %functions
if (not exists $functions{$command}) {
die "The command $command is not known\n";
}
} else {
die "Command required\n"; # Throw fatal exception on parse error.
}
# As long as our matches haven't consumed the whole string...
while (pos($line) < length($line)) {
# Try to match variables
if ($line =~ m/\G \$(\w+) \s*/xgc) {
die "The variable $1 does not exist\n" if not exists $env{$1};
push #args, $env{$1};
}
# Try to match strings
elsif ($line =~ m/\G "([^"]+)" \s*/xgc) {
push #args, $1;
}
# Try to match ints or floats
elsif ($line =~ m/\G (\d+ (?:\.\d+)? ) \s*/xgc) {
push #args, 0+$1;
}
# Throw error if nothing matched
else {
die "Didn't understand that line\n";
}
}
# return our -- now filled -- vars.
return $var, $command, #args;
}
Perl arrays can be handled like linked list: shift removes and returns the first element (pop does the same to the last element). push adds an element to the end, unshift to the beginning.
Out little programming language can execute simple programs like:
#!my_little_language
$a = mul 2 20
$b = add 0 2
$answer = add $a $b
say $answer
bye
If (1) our perl script is saved in my_little_language, set to be executable, and is in the system PATH, and (2) the above file in our little language saved as meaning_of_life.mll, and also set to be executable, then
$ ./meaning_of_life
should be able to run it.
Output is obviously 42. Note that our language doesn't yet have string manipulation or simple assignment to variables. Also, it would be nice to be able to call functions with the return value of other functions directly. This requires some sort of parens, or precedence mechanism. Also, the language requires better error reporting for batch processing (which it already supports).
I have a subroutine in Perl sub findfiles , I have to pass a quoted value "*/*" as input parameter since it complains without quoting ,on the other hand in my subroutine I needed it to be unquoted (may be!)The problem is when I print the value to check ,I don't see any quote,or any thing but may be there are some special hidden character or something I don't know ? My codes work properly when I use */*directly but not when I pass it as as an input parameter
Do you have any idea?
sub findfiles {
$dirname=$_[0];
my #temp = grep {-f} <$dirname>;
print #temp;
}
&findfiles("*/*"); doesnot work
but
sub findfiles {
$dirname=$_[0];
my #temp = grep {-f} <*/*>;
print #temp;
}
does its job
With your updated code, I can see where your error lies. While
my #temp = grep {-f} <*/*>;
Works as a glob
my #temp = grep {-f} <$dirname>;
Is interpreted as a readline() on the file handle $dirname.
If you want to avoid ambiguity you can use the function for glob:
my #temp = grep -f, glob $dirname;
You might also be interested in using File::Find, which finds files recursively.
NOTE: This problem could have been avoided if you had warnings turned on. As a rule of thumb, coding in perl without using
use strict;
use warnings;
...is a very bad idea. These two pragmas will help you identify problems with your code.
The problem is when I print the value to check ,I don't see any quote
$test="*/*"
^string delimiter
^^^string
^string delimiter
When you print a string (be it from a string literal, a scalar or whatever) you print the string.
The delimiters don't get printed. They just tell perl where the edges of the data are.
Do you know about File::Find?
use File::Find ();
File::Find::find( sub { say $File::Find::name if -f; } => $my_root );
Or what about File::Find::Rule (see file)?
say foreach File::Find::Rule->file->in( $my_root );
I need to use some string replacement in Perl to ease translations, i.e. replace many
print "Outputting " . $n . " numbers";
by something like
printf ("Outputting %d numbers", $n);
However, I'd like to replace printf with something easier to parse for humans, like this:
printX ("Outputting {num} numbers", { num => $n });
or generally something more Perly.
Can you recommend something (from CPAN or not) you like and use?
What about simply:
print "Outputting $n numbers";
That's very Perly. If you don't need any kind of fancy formatting, string interpolation is definitely the way to go.
Most Templating modules on CPAN will probably do what you want. Here's an example using Template Toolkit...
use Template;
my $tt = Template->new;
$tt->process( \"Outputting [% num %] numbers\n", { num => 100 } );
And you can mimic your required example with something like this...
sub printX {
use Template;
my $tt = Template->new( START_TAG => '{', END_TAG => '}' );
$tt->process( \( $_[0] . "\n" ), $_[1] );
}
and you've got...
printX 'Outputting {num} numbers' => { num => 100 };
The print builtin is very convenient for most situations. Besides variable interpolation:
print "Outputting $n numbers"; # These two lines
print "Outputting ${n} numbers"; # are equivalent
Remember that print can take multiple arguments, so there is no need to concatenate them first into a single string if you need to print the result of a subroutine call:
print "Output data: ", Dumper($data);
However, for outputting numbers other than simple integers, you'll probably want the formatting convenience of printf. Outputting other data types is easy with print, though.
You can use join to conveniently output arrays:
print join ', ', #array;
And combine with map and keys to output hashes:
print join ', ', map {"$_ : $hash{$_}"} keys %hash;
Use the qq operator if you want to output quotes around the data:
print join ', ', map {qq("$_" : "$hash{$_}"}) keys %hash;
If you're looking to ease translations you should consider using one of the L10n/i18n CPAN modules that are available. Specifically, a good overview of why your approach will end up falling short is written up as part of the Local::Maketext docs.
Another great module that pairs nicely with Locale::Maketext is Locale::Maketext::Lexicon. This allows you to use more standard localization formats such as gettext's .po/.mo files which have GUI tools to help translators work through all the text that needs translating. Locale::Maketext::Lexicon also comes with a helper script (xgettext.pl) that helps keep your localization files up-to-date with your templates or modules that have text that need translating. I've had very good results with this kind of setup in the past.
It seems you want to have a different way of parsing strings. I would advise you not to do this. The only one who is seeing the syntax with the %d in it is the developer and he will exactly understand what is meant. The printf syntax is powerful because of the options like padding, decimals etc.
I think you want to use more a replace method. It is perlish to do s/{num}/$n/.
In light of your comment about being for translators I suggest writing a perl script that strips all printf() and tabulates them in an easier more translator friendly manner.
Something like this:
while(<>)
{
#regex for striping printf
#print in tabulated form
}
If you print out the line number too you can easily write another program to replace the translated text.
This solution wouldn't take you any longer than re-factoring away from printf() and it's reusable.
I would definitely stick with printf(), it's standard across many languages.
It has almost become a standard for string output. Like i is for for loops.
Generally answer from Draegtun is great, but if you'd need something smaller (i.e. less memory), and not as powerful you can easily do it using this function:
sub printX {
my ( $format, $vars ) = #_;
my #sorted_keys = sort { length($b) <=> length($a) } keys %{ $vars };
my $re = join '|', map { "\Q$_\E" } #sorted_keys;
$format =~ s/ \{ \s* ($re) \s* \} /$vars->{$1}/xg;
print $format;
}
well, perl has printf function...
wait, do you want something like python's string formatting with dict?
>>> print '%(key)s' % {'key': 'value'}
value
mmm, I don't know something like that exist in perl...
at least not this "easy"...
maybe Text::Sprintf::Named can be your friend
I have a line of code along the lines of:
print $somehash{$var}{fh} "foo";
The hash contains the filehandle a few levels down. The error is:
String found where operator expected at test.pl line 10, near "} "foo""
I can fix it by doing this:
my $fh = $somehash{$var}{fh};
print $fh "foo";
...but is there a one-liner?
see http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/print.html
Note that if you're storing
FILEHANDLEs in an array, or if you're
using any other expression more
complex than a scalar variable to
retrieve it, you will have to use a
block returning the filehandle value
instead: ...
So, in your case, you would use a block like this:
print { $somehash{$var}{fh} } "foo";
If you have anything other than a simple scalar as your filehandle, you need to wrap the reference holding the filehandle in braces so Perl knows how to parse the statement:
print { $somehash{$var}{fh} } $foo;
Part of Perl Best Practices says to always wrap filehandles in braces just for this reason, although I don't get that nutty with it.
The syntax is odd because print is an indirect method on a filehandle object:
method_name Object #arguments;
You might have seen this in old-school CGI.pm. Here are two indirect method calls:
use CGI;
my $cgi_object = new CGI 'cat=Buster&bird=nightengale';
my $value = param $cgi_object 'bird';
print "Indirect value is $value\n";
That almost works fine (see Schwern's answer about the ambiguity) as long as the object is in a simple scalar. However, if I put the $cgi_object in a hash, I get the same syntax error you got with print. I can put the braces around the hash access to make it work out. Continuing with the previous code:
my %hash;
$hash{animals}{cgi} = $cgi_object;
# $value = param $hash{animals}{cgi} 'cat'; # syntax error
$value = param { $hash{animals}{cgi} } 'cat';
print "Braced value is $value\n";
That's all a bit clunky so just use the arrow notation for everything instead:
my $cgi_object = CGI->new( ... );
$cgi_object->param( ... );
$hash{animals}{cgi}->param( ... );
You can do the same with filehandles, although you have to use the IO::Handle module to make it all work out:
use IO::Handle;
STDOUT->print( 'Hello World' );
open my( $fh ), ">", $filename or die ...;
$fh->print( ... );
$hash{animals}{fh} = $fh;
$hash{animals}{fh}->print( ... );
The above answers are all correct. The reason they don't allow a full expression in there is print FH LIST is already pretty weird syntax. To put anything more complicated in there would introduce a ton of ambiguous syntax. The block removed that ambiguity.
To see where this madness leads to, consider the horror that is indirect object syntax.
foo $bar; # Is that foo($bar) or $bar->foo()? Good luck!