How to get a number from a file

[xS73v3x]

im trying to open a file, and in it is a number i need for a for loop, but if i try to get it from the text file, for example:
$theNum = <THEFILE>;

now, $theNum will contain the number i want, and and endline! (&quot;3\n&quot

how can i extract just the number so i can use it in a for loop?

 

[CherylD]

Use chop. It will strip off the last character of a string, including new line characters.

chop($theNum);

 

[icrf]

You could use the value in numeric context as-is, perl will convert it. Perl checks a scalar string from the left scanning for a number, stopping at the first character that would cause what's been scanned to not be a number. Examples:

"1.2"      => 1.2
"1.2.3"    => 1.2 #scanning stops at the second decimal
"1b4.5"    => 1 #scanning stops at the b
"help!"    => 0 #no numbers at start(or at all) returns zero
"a123"     => 0 #no numbers at start
"1.2e-1"   => 0.12 #support for scientific notation
"1.2e-1.5" => 0.12 #perl doesn't allow decimal values within scientific notation-style exponentiation

If you

use warnings;

it'll yell about arguments being non-numeric if it has to do any more converting than in the first line above.

But in general, yes, chomp your input as Cheryl advised. It's a much better way to clean up input, and a whole lot faster. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...but I'm just a C man trying to see the light

 

[xS73v3x]

Thanks Cheryl! chop worked great, and icrf, using it as-is doesnt work, otherwise i wouldnt have posted this